Indeed all the evidence suggests that rather than rotten apples in the army barrel, it is the whole barrel which is rotten.It was because the army top brass consciously sought to cover up for the actions of lower ranks that Lord Goldsmith has insisted that charges of ill-treatment of prisoners should be tried in civilian courts. These are merely a few bad apples in an otherwise pure and untarnished barrel.How long is this nonsense, which is an insult to the intelligence, going to go unchallenged by the media? Apart from anything else, it is an invitation to commit further atrocities, because it is based on the presumption that everything is alright and nothing needs to be changed.The film of the army beatings clearly shows other soldiers going about their duty and ignoring the screams of the young Iraqis being beaten up. The beatings took place in full sight of both ordinary soldiers and officers. One can only assume that this was considered an everyday occurrence. Israel clearly intends to carry on in its path of non-compliance, so it is left to non-governmental bodies such as the APJP to register their disquiet at this blatant disregard in the only way open to them: boycott.DINA TURNERFARNHAM, SURREY Abuse by troops is not ‘the exception’ Sir: Once again Tony Blair’s reflex response to accusations of brutality by British troops in Iraq is that this is an exception (report, 13 February). But sometimes the intent is demonstrably blatant; all the Nazi death camps were designed by architects, for example. Surely all the APJP are asking for is that architects be aware of the moral and political implications of their work.
LOUIS HELLMANLONDON W3Sir: Your report on Israel’s architectural wonders was wonderful.
Would you care to explain how I, a Palestinian, might be able to one day visit the country and see these modernist masterpieces? Might you also know who the architect behind the wall running through my hometown of Abu Dis on the West Bank, is? I feel there might have been a “communication problem” between said architect and the local population. Finally, have you ever considered the way in which modernist, European architecture brought by the boatload in the 20th century destroyed the integrity of places like Ain Hod, Haifa and Tiberias?ABDULHADI W AYYADLONDON SW19Sir: For decades the international community has failed to put any pressure on Israel to comply with international law on illegal settlements and human rights. All buildings make political statements, from the Pyramids to the Parthenon, and from the Lloyds building to Ronan Point. Sir: Was the article on modern Israeli architecture (11 February) the day after your report of the Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine meeting (10 February) coincidence or not? Either way it missed the point that some Israeli architects’ designs are being used as political weapons by the current regime to build on the occupied territories
It is not just a matter of aesthetic niceties. At a stroke, one of the few musical instruments which I can play with anything like virtuosity has been snatched from me into the alien realm of musical competence.”We just want to give people the fun of producing the music”, explained one of the inventors.
Surely though that’s what real guitars are for? And why they come attended with the grief of aching fingers straddling the frets and the public humiliation of the ill-struck string. Personally I’ll be sticking to the unwired version – it never needs rebooting and in a long string of triumphant stadium appearances I’ve yet to hit a bum note on it.t.sutcliffe independent.co.uk
More from Thomas Sutcliffe. Yes it’s going to trash the environment, just like mummy and daddy. But you wouldn’t attack a baby would you?* It is disturbing news that a group of Finnish technologists has created a device that allows you to play a genuine air guitar. The player dons a pair of orange gloves and performs windmilling riffs in front of a television camera which, with the help of a computer, transforms the movements into sounds. Their ad, above, depicts a meet-cute moment between Godzilla and a giant skyscraper-crushing robot. One thing leads to another and, after a short pregnancy, the “little monster” is delivered.
I was curious to see whether President Bush’s appeal to his fellow Americans to kick the addiction to oil would be reflected in the commercials .. and the news isn’t all bad Out of six car ads, two were for hybrid vehicles. On the other hand, the other four were for vehicles whose carbon footprint is monstrous – apparently still a source of pride for the makers of the Hummer 3. But I suspect we’d just had time to get used to a lot worse.Bush’s message kicked into touchAccording to a recent survey, British workers consume the equivalent of two weeks unofficial holiday a year browsing the internet and e-mailing each other.I should warn slackers now that it’s easy to lose at least an hour on the AOL site which currently allows you to watch all the ads played during the recent Superbowl.I had an excuse. And while such entertainments may not, in themselves, provoke violence, they surely make it easier to think that violence is a form of entertainment.It would be flattering to think that the audience for Brenton’s play was immune from this effect – that our polite decorum on the first night was evidence of our thoughtfulness. The young men who buy blurred videos of beheadings and car-bombings have more in common with their US and British enemies than they might care to think They share a relish for human damage, for blows inflicted.
It was no surprise recently to learn that library readers had given up on romance in favour of forensic crime, with Patricia Cornwell’s lubriciously bloody thrillers leading the pack.No surprise either that the latest version of the computer game Grand Theft Auto should provoke outrage, not because it allows its youthful players to attack passers-by with a chainsaw and a baseball bat, but because it contains concealed sexual scenes.This is hardly an exclusively Western taste. Are we really shocked to find that British soldiers are sometimes brutal to Iraqi civilians or overreact to provocation? Would any of us have bet hard cash against the possibility? But there remains something genuinely shocking about the idea that you would record your own brutality with flagrant pride. One thinks of the feral teenagers who kicked a man to death on the South Bank and recorded the attack on a mobile phone. These are people who want to enjoy their bullying at leisure.And, although I’ve spent a lot of time arguing against facile connections between screen violence and the real thing, it’s very hard to avoid the conclusion that they think that way because so much in our culture now invites us to enjoy the savagery of others. And in both scenes a large component of the shock lies in the fact that the bystanders clearly think nothing untoward is happening. That, oddly, is the central horror of Brenton’s incident; that an act which should be furtive and enraged is actually blatant and bored – just another chore.With the footage from Iraq, too, it is not so much the deed that surprises us as the absence of shame. But after reading coverage of the latest video nasty from Iraq, I found myself wondering whether there might be more to our equanimity in 2006 than mere theatrical sophistication.
The similarities between Howard Brenton’s imagined assault and this one were quite striking and they seem to underline his essential thesis – that cruelty is a historical constant In both scenes the abusers outnumbered the abused.
