Sunday, July 24, 2005
Bush torture policies: Suffer the little children (cont)
In commments, farmer points out that the episode quoted by the Sunday Herald (back) comes right out of The Taguba Report (PDF):
NOTE Again, the rapist is doing evil, no question. A "bad apple," as George "The Buck Never Stops" W. Bush would put it. But don't fall for the Rovian wedge issue of "blaming the troops." To repeat (back):
To me, the "great millstone" quotation applies whenever someone in a position of power abuses the trust placed in them. So, a guard raping a teenage boy? Millstone material. The commander in chief who, with a wink, a nod, and a shrug, gave that guard permission to become a rapist? Millstone material, too.
NOTE Again, the rapist is doing evil, no question. A "bad apple," as George "The Buck Never Stops" W. Bush would put it. But don't fall for the Rovian wedge issue of "blaming the troops." To repeat (back):
So, the real responsibility—yes, for the true evil doing—shouldn't be placed on the troops, but on Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Gonzales. They are the evil-doers with command responsibility; they are the evil-doers who, even today, laugh at the idea that they will be held to account for their crimes; they are the evil-doers who, by not "sweating the details," put the troops in the position to lose their honor as soldiers and men and women; they are the evil-doers who, fallen themselves, caused others to fall. "It would be better for them to have a great millstone fastened round their necks and be drowned into the depth of the sea."
To me, the "great millstone" quotation applies whenever someone in a position of power abuses the trust placed in them. So, a guard raping a teenage boy? Millstone material. The commander in chief who, with a wink, a nod, and a shrug, gave that guard permission to become a rapist? Millstone material, too.