July 23, 2004, "Bad Apples" Never Die
Deliberately released in the wake of the more popular 9-11 Commission report is another internal Army report by its own inspector general which, surprise, surprise, insists that the 94 documented incidents of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan (including twenty deaths) were "aberrations"-- despite inadequate (or non-existent) training and oversight, and despite the Red Cross among others viewing the mistreatment as systemic. Goebbels would be proud: just keep repeating the obvious and blatant lie that the torture was not systemic and ordered directly by Rumsfeld himself (on direct instructions to him from Bush), and maybe someone will believe it. However...
For whatever reasons, the pictures depicting torture of children have not yet come out; there is substantial and well-documented evidence of course, that children were systemically tortured in front of their parents to squeeze out information-- something we would have hoped would be reserved for the Third Reich rather than the United States-- and Sy Hersh insists there are pictures which would "shock Americans". (He's wrong, of course, unless the pictures involved Janet Jackson's boobs. As long as the torturees are swarthy A-rab types, red-blooded and red-stated Americans couldn't care less if they were children. Just as Americans by and large couldn't care less that our Fallujah-handover-to-Baathists to keep things in order has worked so beautifully, that we continue to have an ongoing battle there (which resulted in numerous casualties to... children). Short answer: other than the American casualties (which Americans DO care about), I don't think the American people care enough about the torture one way or another; I think that by insisting on floating the "few bad apples" theory again, the Army is keeping this issue alive in a way that it might not be otherwise. Lesson to the Bushmen: the cover-up is always more trouble than the underlying crime... what's the POINT of trying to teach something to someone who admits that he is PROUD that he does not (and most likely cannot) read...
"Occupation over, troops remain" is not having the desired effect of taking Iraq off the front pages and frontal lobes of the voters... troops keep dying; at least two yesterday in a road-side bomb in Iraq, as we come ever closer to 1,000 dead American troops from the Iraq Adventure/War to Avenge Papa Bush TM.
The majority of Americans now think the Iraq war was a bad idea-- not worth the cost-- and that number keeps going up. Since the cost is not going to go down, the poll numbers of those who think the war is a bad idea will not go down. And its pretty clear that as goes one's feelings towards the war, so goes one's feelings towards George W. Bush.
While the spin machines are desperate to tell us that the election is still a "dead-heat" (once again, its not as if John Kerry has the Bill Clinton instantly-likeable charisma thing), the harsh reality is that its probably all but over now for the Bushmen. While they scramble and squirm and float new cheating angles (more Florida disenfranchisement, calling a Code Red in California on Election Day, cancelling the elections altogether), the end is pretty much nigh for them... Yes, the conventions and debates are to come, and we're around 100 days out now, and serious flubs can still certainly be made... Just as I was pointing out yesterday that until Lance Armstrong crosses the line at the Champs Elysee, his lead ain't insurmountable... but right now, the last couple of slogging-along weeks for the Bushmen have finally turned the tide against them, and I would submit, inexorably.
Hard to say what finally turned the tide once and for all-- that Plame won't go away (even as they desperately point out problems with Joe WIlson and his statements), that the torture won't go away (though their own posturings are keeping it around), that the sovereignty-transfer fraud has fooled no one, and if anything, American casualties are accelerating?
Or maybe it was Fahrenheit 911-- not so much creating Bush hatred as finally unleashing a fount of it that was already there, galvanizing those lukewarm about hating him, and showing moderates, independents, and even a fair number of loyal Republicans, that whoever's side George W. Bush is on, its not ours. And worse, while the antipathy to Bush is real and as passionate as any feelings I've ever seen (more passionate even than Clinton hatred), his support, while always at that 40% level, is lukewarm and not enthusiastic. While many (such as... guess who) hate the man with a passion, few even who support him actually "like" him (at least at anything more than the most superficial level, in the same way they would like any cardboard cut-out bearing the GOP endorsement).
As death by a thousand cuts did in Al Gore, we see similar things unfolding now. And a barrel of bad apples will, in a few months, likely be dispatched home to rot in the Texas sun.
Comments
"Principles of Feminism Put Arab Fundamentalists into Hijacked 9/11 Planes"
It was reported today that a Clinton plan in 1998 to buy Osama bin Laden from the Taliban for $250M was quashed because Hillary did not want to reward an anti-feminist regime. Senator Clinton stated: "There could be no deal. I refuse to sell out the principles of feminism, even today, for any cause, be it fighting terrorism or protecting the environment. Some things, you just gotta hold true to the beliefs and damn the consequences."
When pressed for comment, former President Clinton stated: "I support my wife. I've held true to many a principal feminist. I devoted my presidency to women getting on top."
Posted by Fatt Nudge at July 23, 2004 02:40 PM
"Sandy Berger Walks Easier"
Former NSA Advisor Sandy Berger's problems with his arches have disappeared. It seems Mr. Berger's foot doctor prescribed, in order to ease a long-standing foot pain, that Mr. Berger walk around with the exact type of paper stock only used by the Federal Government used during the Clinton Administration. However, Mr. Berger could not locate any unused paper stock, and was forced to resort to the used paper, which was only to be found at the National Archives.
So, there, it's all so simple. He was following doctor's orders, and as a result, he'll walk away from the matter a whole lot easier.
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