# Ah, the "ethics of expediency"....



## j d worthington (Mar 4, 2007)

You know, when it was found out that our government protected certain high-level Nazis in order for certain "favors", people were outraged. I'm wondering if we're too damned apathetic to care about this sort of thing now, as I've not heard diddle about this story since....

AP: CIA recruited Japanese war criminals - Yahoo! News

Title: "AP: CIA recruited Japanese war criminals"; by Joseph Coleman, datelined Sat., Feb. 24, 2007.

This is through AP, obviously, which always gives pause. But... I've not heard anything to indicate a refutation or any further interest in whether it's true or not. That, to me, is a sad-making thing. This is indeed the sort of thing we should be quite irate about. The "ethics of expediency" is simply another name for "lack of ethics", or "ethics of a weasel", in my opinion. Even if slimy deals _must_ be made, the fact that they're made so damned often, no one up there seems to bat an eye, makes my gorge buoyant....


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## Pyan (Mar 4, 2007)

That's the second post of yours I've read casting aspersions on the quality of AP, jd. I've never heard of any problems with their accuracy - have I missed something?


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## nixie (Mar 4, 2007)

From what I can gather a lot of Japenese war criminals were never brought to justice. Last year I read a book about an atrocity I never knew happened.
The Rape of Nanking. BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Scarred by history: The Rape of Nanjing

The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century


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## Pyan (Mar 4, 2007)

The trouble is, nixie, that when you start digging, it's hard to find any two adjacent countries that haven't been beastly to each other.

Invasion and illegal annexation of Tibet by China: 1949-1951


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## nixie (Mar 4, 2007)

True, our capacity for cruelty towards others never fails to amaze me


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## j d worthington (Mar 4, 2007)

pyanfaruk said:


> That's the second post of yours I've read casting aspersions on the quality of AP, jd. I've never heard of any problems with their accuracy - have I missed something?


 
There have been questions raised about their accuracy on occasion... when I was working for a newspaper which carried stories from AP, we had a rather major news story we ran from them. Unfortunately, no one had bothered to do the fact-checking, so a lot of people ended up with egg on their face. While I don't think it's a normal thing (although I don't think fact checking is nearly as rigorous as it used to be with most news organizations these days), that is intended as a caveat to that, and to those who claim extreme bias on AP's part... something I'm less inclined to give credence to (as far as extreme is concerned, bias is almost impossible to avoid in any theatre of activity, from histories to biographies to sonnets to what foods to carry in a grocery store), but just a warning that it does happen, so to check against other sources to be on the safe side.

Frankly, I'm inclined to heed AP, but I do believe in double-checking -- with anyone!


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## The Ace (Mar 4, 2007)

It's brutally simple.  Department 731, carried out experiments in chemical and biological weapons, doing things to people which would make the nazis sick(er).  After the war, the Yanks decided that this data was too valuable to lose and covered the whole thing up.   None of the doctors and scientists involved were ever called to account.  It would sicken a pig.


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## Curt Chiarelli (Mar 4, 2007)

Sure, the O.S.S. employed many Nazi war criminals in France, Italy and Greece to assasinate and otherwise disrupt communist political activities in post-war Europe. None of this surprises me. Our country likes to delude itself into thinking John Wayne and the Cavalry is the embodiment of the American spirit, but the harsh reality is that we've contributed more than our own fair share to the world's misery.

So, which is worse, initiating war crimes or riding on the coattails of vanquished war criminals and then profiting from it? The layers of hypocrisy stun the mind and set it reeling . . . .


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## j d worthington (Mar 4, 2007)

You know, one of the things that just staggers me the most is... our government engages in this sort of thing, and then decries the descent into cynicism and apathy of the people..... _Say *what???!!! *_


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## Pyan (Mar 4, 2007)

Thanks for that, jd


j. d. worthington said:


> but I do believe in double-checking -- with anyone!


Oh yes - I agree!




> our government engages in this sort of thing, and then decries the descent into cynicism and apathy of the people.


Nearly right - just substitute *"every" *for _*"our" *_and you've got it!

Tell me - is everone of our generation so cynical, or just we intelligent ones on the Chrons?


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## j d worthington (Mar 4, 2007)

pyanfaruk said:


> Nearly right - just substitute *"every" *for _*"our" *_and you've got it!


 
Yes... should've added an "s" there "our government_*s*_".... I was intending it for more than just America here....

No, Pyan, it's not just us. When I was working retail (at a grocery store, at a video store, etc.), the attitude of the majority of both fellow workers and customers was much the same. There was complete cynicism, disbelief in anything they were told, but that also led to a feeling of apathy and, at best, "better the devil you know..." rather than a feeling that the whole batch of scoundrels should be taken out and hanged....


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## Pyan (Mar 4, 2007)

Yess....I sometimes wonder, with all due respect, if the Second American Revolution is overdue...followed by the elimination of New Labour over here.
Heinlein had it right.............the _"Crazy Years"_


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## j d worthington (Mar 4, 2007)

pyanfaruk said:


> Heinlein had it right.............the _"Crazy Years"_


 
I've wondered about that first since about 1971.... As for the above comment... well, I've thought that for some time, too.....


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