May 12, 2004

Nonsense on Parade
Posted by Jon Henke

[Will Update as appropriate] Worst quotes I have come across during the abuse scandals.

Rich Lowry, in a column following the long and stupid tradition of blaming the transgression on "society"...

The Americans sexually humiliated Iraqi prisoners, forcing them to masturbate, to wear women's underwear, and to commit (or feign committing) unnatural acts, and captured it on film. If they had done this stateside in different circumstances, they might be very rich and perhaps even up for an Adult Video Award.
Well, yes Rich...I suppose that's true. If the circumstances were different, the circumstances would have been different. Thanks for the brilliant insight.

Senator Inhofe...

"I have to say, and I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment. The idea that these prisoners, you know, they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cell block 1A or 1B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents, many of them probably have American blood on their hands, and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."
That's right, Senator. It's so much more outrageous to criticise torture than to actually engage in it.
...which is something I'm sure you'd believe right up until somebody forced you to perform oral sex on another man.

I wish I could find the words to express my contempt for these people who keep making excuses for evil. Look, the fact that Mao Tse-Tung killed 80 million people doesn't, in any way, mitigate the fact that Pol Pot is still an evil fellow. The same logic applies to our abuses in Iraq. Don't conflate our failure with their failure. That's a non-sequitur argument, and it excuses evil.

Atrios manages to pin some blame on Bush for Berg's death...

The presence of al Zarqawi was used as one of the justifications for invading Iraq, despite the fact that he was being harbored in Kurdish controlled territory in the North. The Bush administration ignored 3 opportunities to get him, feeling that it would undercut their non-existent case for war in Iraq.
Note, please, that Atrios was very much against fighting a war in Iraq without UN authorization just because our intelligence agencies said we had a "slam-dunk" case. But when it suits him, he complains that we didn't do what? Attack Iraq. Without UN authorization. Because our intelligence agency told us the case was "airtight".

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Comments

What he said to sort of condone abuse was dead wrong. As to the rest of the Sen. statement......


What's wrong with being outraged at some of the "outrage"

Some of the blatant and disgusting partisian hackery.

Some of the over the top hypocracy.

What's wrong with that? Because the abuse was disgusting, we lose the right to call politicians/media types on their bull for this subject? No, we can't think that way.

Sorry to think political here, but at least some of this "outrage" over this disgrace is just an extension of the anti-war movement, and we should recognize that...


Posted by: shark at May 12, 2004 11:29 AM