What's he on about now?

In case the articles, essays and opinions throughtout this site just weren't enough for you, here's my online diary (a.k.a. 'blog'). It's as close as you'll come to the inside of my head, so don't say I didn't warn you
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   Monday, May 10, 2004

YIKES!

I realize with some alarm that it's been about three weeks since my last confession. Did I say 'confession'? I meant 'post'. Pretty well the same thing though, really.

My absence is certainly not due to having nothing to discuss. For one thing, there's those horrifying pictures out of Iraq. I thought "Passion of the Christ" was ugly but, man, seeing what's going on in those prisons (note the present tense!) made me ill.

And the worst part, as always, is that the Bush administration, as always, knew all about it. The Taguba report on conditions in US mercenary-run, privately-contracted prisons was submitted in final form on March 9, 2004. Over a week later, March 19th, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice pops up on the CBS Early Show to praise George W.'s victories and declare, "There are no more rape rooms and torture chambers in Iraq."

Typical cover-up spin-doctoring but, horrors of horrors, images of the atrocities leaked past her and then, even as the story was finally starting to erupt all over the mainstream media weeks later, Bush repeated this silliness at his April 30th press conference:

"A year ago, I did give the speech from the carrier, saying that we had achieved an important objective, that we'd accomplished a mission, which was the removal of Saddam Hussein. And as a result, there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq."

As "The Daily Show"'s Jon Stewart put it, "Well, they're not exactly closed...let's just say they're under new management."

It's all truly disgusting but then comes my favourite bit: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who knew about all of this before Bush or Rice, explains it all on May 4th:

"I'm not a lawyer. My impression is that what has been charged thus far is abuse, which I believe technically is different from torture...I don't know if it is correct to say what you just said, that torture has taken place, or that there's been a conviction for torture. And therefore I'm not going to address the torture word."

In a word: leadership.
Bush, by the way, announced this week that Rumsfeld is doing "a superb job."

I've been avoiding any link to more photos but I did find this terrific piece from the UK Observer on the origins of this entire sad story, as well as Jacob Weinstein's definitive character study of George W -- both of which destroy any notion that this was simply an aberration or, another favourite bit, just "a couple of bad apples." Just remember that you can't read and shake your head at the same time.

Labels: George W Bush