Friday, July 01, 2005
International Security & Justice News & Musings: Bush's Absurd Response to Amnesty Allegations
International Security & Justice News & Musings: Bush's Absurd Response to Amnesty Allegations:
"'It seemed like to me they [Amnesty International] based some of their decisions on the word of and the allegations by people that were held in detention, people who hate America, people that have been trained in some instances to disassemble, that means not tell the truth.'"
Oh, George. Who taught you to "disassemble" so very well?
We've come to the point where reputable news agencies -- some of them considered "liberal" -- are having healthy debates about what "torture" means, and whether or not it might be acceptable:
Slate.com
And today I came across a discussion on the "Chatterbox Cafe" section of the "A Prairie Home Companion" website that really disturbed me -- again, a show considered by many to be "liberal," but clearly most of the listeners are not.
But then it's as with everything else: the government, the media, the country have become so conservative-right-leaning that they've swung the bar that way; anything to the left of Fox News is considered "liberal."
Rush Limbaugh responded to the initial photographs from Abu Ghraib prison by joking that this degradation was "no different than what happens at the Skulls and Bones initiation."
In the midst of the Abu Ghraib scandal, Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe said, "I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment." (We actually have members of Congress that are further to the right than this administration -- now that's a bit scary.)
And of course Bush, when questioned about the U.S. using "extraordinary rendition," consistently defends the practice.
As one blogger put it:
"So, the "support our troops" variant of the pro-torture position now has a green light from the top. If you demand accountability for torture, you are dishonoring American soldiers.
. . . .
Let's make no mistake about it. When candidates in a democracy feel that it's necessary to defend themselves by affirming and reaffirming that they honor and support American troops and American values whenever they speak out against the practice of torture, then it's long past time for our pompous politicians to stop saying that America is the greatest country in the world. Because our practice of politics has become corrupted by something even worse than our still-shameful "pay to play" system of campaign financing.
A recent poll showed that 30% of Americans did not consider what occurred at Abu Ghraib to be torture.
Where are we going?
Are we gonna start decapitating people because "they" do it, too?
"'It seemed like to me they [Amnesty International] based some of their decisions on the word of and the allegations by people that were held in detention, people who hate America, people that have been trained in some instances to disassemble, that means not tell the truth.'"
Oh, George. Who taught you to "disassemble" so very well?
We've come to the point where reputable news agencies -- some of them considered "liberal" -- are having healthy debates about what "torture" means, and whether or not it might be acceptable:
Slate.com
And today I came across a discussion on the "Chatterbox Cafe" section of the "A Prairie Home Companion" website that really disturbed me -- again, a show considered by many to be "liberal," but clearly most of the listeners are not.
But then it's as with everything else: the government, the media, the country have become so conservative-right-leaning that they've swung the bar that way; anything to the left of Fox News is considered "liberal."
Rush Limbaugh responded to the initial photographs from Abu Ghraib prison by joking that this degradation was "no different than what happens at the Skulls and Bones initiation."
In the midst of the Abu Ghraib scandal, Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe said, "I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment." (We actually have members of Congress that are further to the right than this administration -- now that's a bit scary.)
And of course Bush, when questioned about the U.S. using "extraordinary rendition," consistently defends the practice.
As one blogger put it:
"So, the "support our troops" variant of the pro-torture position now has a green light from the top. If you demand accountability for torture, you are dishonoring American soldiers.
. . . .
Let's make no mistake about it. When candidates in a democracy feel that it's necessary to defend themselves by affirming and reaffirming that they honor and support American troops and American values whenever they speak out against the practice of torture, then it's long past time for our pompous politicians to stop saying that America is the greatest country in the world. Because our practice of politics has become corrupted by something even worse than our still-shameful "pay to play" system of campaign financing.
A recent poll showed that 30% of Americans did not consider what occurred at Abu Ghraib to be torture.
Where are we going?
Are we gonna start decapitating people because "they" do it, too?
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