My comment in the Globe:
Rumsfeld's shrugs
May 12, 2005
IN HIS timely essay about the nonchalant use of ''whatever" to shrug off personal responsibility for morally egregious acts (''Our war for 'whatever,' " op ed, May 10), James Carroll argues that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld may not say ''whatever," but his body language often communicates the same message. Carroll should have recalled that when asked about the looting and mayhem that followed the capture of Baghdad, Rumsfeld's considered reaction was ''things happen," as though the United States bore no responsibility as the conquering nation. With a shrug, Rumsfeld dismissed a century's conventions on the Laws of Land Warfare. Whatever, indeed.
AUGUSTUS RICHARD NORTON
Professor of anthropology and international relations
Boston University
No comments:
Post a Comment