In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
The Sickening Right
I, like any sane soul of any political or religious preference sees this photo and feels shame, not only as an American but as a human.
From CHAIN OF COMMAND:
His hands are clasped behind his neck and he is leaning against the door to a cell, contorted with terror, as the dogs bark a few feet away. Other photographs show the dogs straining at their leashes and snarling at the prisoner. In another, taken a few minutes later, the Iraqi is lying on the ground, writhing in pain, with a soldier sitting on top of him, knee pressed to his back. Blood is streaming from the inmate's leg. Another photograph is a closeup of the naked prisoner, from his waist to his ankles, lying on the floor. On his right thigh is what appears to be a bite or a deep scratch. There is another, larger wound on his left leg, covered in blood.
But others see this and other photos and say:
This is no different than what happens at the skull and bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off? These people are the enemy. - Rush Limbaugh
When I hear that there are instances where our soldiers sodomize prisoners with "glow sticks," where the prisoners have been forced to masturbate, where there are reports of female prisoners being raped, and where some prisoners have been killed by the brutal mistreatment they were suffering, I feel outraged.
But a Republican Senator is outraged at my outrage:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As others condemned the reported abuse of Iraqi prisoners, U.S. Sen. James Inhofe on Tuesday expressed outrage at the worldwide outrage over the treatment by American soldiers of those he called "terrorists" and "murderers."
"I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment," the Oklahoma Republican said at a U.S. Senate hearing probing the scandal.
"These prisoners, you know they're not there for traffic violations," Inhofe said. "If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."
Was our belief in the American way, you know truth and justice, so weak that 9/11 turned us into thugs that behave in ways we would have found abhorrent in the 20th century? You keep hearing that by acting like a boyscout America was left weak and open for attack. Well, now we're acting like a stupid drunken thug and we're no safer and more people want to attack us. Listen to the experts, or even to people who have been tortured (such as Senator McCain), torture does not get you information that is useful. These interrogation "methods" and this war in Iraq itself do nothing to make America safer. As far as I can tell the only thing they do is make people say "at least we're doing something." Well gee that's great. Shooting ourselves in the foot is doing "something."
Oh, and despite being an ass and having some sickening blood lust Inhofe is also ignorant of the true facts about these prisoners. While he's right about these prisoners not being in the prison for "traffic violations," they aren't "murderers" or "terrorists" either. They're just people.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, 70% to 90% of these prisoners have been arrested by mistake.
- rob 3:58 PM - [PermaLink] -
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