Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Iraq prison torture: Bush goes on "Arab TV" and says "mistakes were made"
But, oh yeah, Al Hurra (video)—the network that we fund and control. According to Juan Cole, Al Hurra is "widely ridiculed in Iraq as the gardening channel because of the pablum in which it specializes." Sigh.
Bush is going on another station today, too. Al Jazeera?
From what I read, in WaPo, no apology, though I don't know what needs to be done in an Arab culture to do what we would call, I suppose, "making amends."
It's just sad, really. No transcript yet, but here are the quotes from WaPo:
Well.
I hate to parse Bush's words, because it makes my head hurt, but as a public service:
1. Of course torture doesn't represent the America that Bush knows. The America that Bush knows doesn't torture members of the Bush Dynasty. But Bush doesn't know a lot about America, and the America that Bush knows isn't the America that a lot of people know. Most Americans aren't given money to start a new business whenever their old business fails, for example.
2. I don't see an apology in there to the tortured prisoners, or to the Iraqi people. Do you see one? (I assume he didn't make one, since if he had, it would definitely be newsworthy.)
3. Worse, Bush gives the classic Beltway non-apology apology: "Mistakes were made." Farcical.
4. Why that weird qualification, "trained" torturers?
5. Will all the tortuters be brought to justice? Not just the military ones. What about the contractors? If there are Israelis involved ("foreign nationals"), will they be brought to justice?
6. What about the higherups? Will only the torturers be brought to justice? How about sins of commission or omission farther up the chain of command?
7. Does "everything is not perfect" strike anyone besides me as being totally patronizing?
8. "We believe in transparency" is a flat lie. We know it here at home, and the Iraqis surely know it, because they are well aware of how the RNC/CPA awards contracts.
I'd be surprised if Bush's speech did much—but maybe the Arab world is not as experienced in parsing Bush's words, or dealing with his lies, as we are.
Bush is going on another station today, too. Al Jazeera?
From what I read, in WaPo, no apology, though I don't know what needs to be done in an Arab culture to do what we would call, I suppose, "making amends."
It's just sad, really. No transcript yet, but here are the quotes from WaPo:
[BUSH]: " [Abuse of Iraqi prisoners is] abhorrent... [and] does not represent the America I know. [In Saddam Hussein's Iraq, "trained torturers were never brought to justice. ... [I]t is important for the Iraqi people to know that in a democracy, everything is not perfect, that mistakes are made. We have nothing to hide. We believe in transparency because we're a free society. That's what free societies do."
Well.
I hate to parse Bush's words, because it makes my head hurt, but as a public service:
1. Of course torture doesn't represent the America that Bush knows. The America that Bush knows doesn't torture members of the Bush Dynasty. But Bush doesn't know a lot about America, and the America that Bush knows isn't the America that a lot of people know. Most Americans aren't given money to start a new business whenever their old business fails, for example.
2. I don't see an apology in there to the tortured prisoners, or to the Iraqi people. Do you see one? (I assume he didn't make one, since if he had, it would definitely be newsworthy.)
3. Worse, Bush gives the classic Beltway non-apology apology: "Mistakes were made." Farcical.
4. Why that weird qualification, "trained" torturers?
5. Will all the tortuters be brought to justice? Not just the military ones. What about the contractors? If there are Israelis involved ("foreign nationals"), will they be brought to justice?
6. What about the higherups? Will only the torturers be brought to justice? How about sins of commission or omission farther up the chain of command?
7. Does "everything is not perfect" strike anyone besides me as being totally patronizing?
8. "We believe in transparency" is a flat lie. We know it here at home, and the Iraqis surely know it, because they are well aware of how the RNC/CPA awards contracts.
I'd be surprised if Bush's speech did much—but maybe the Arab world is not as experienced in parsing Bush's words, or dealing with his lies, as we are.
