Well aren’t they? You think that maniacal fuckstick Rumsfeld gets on the videophone every morning to Camp X-Ray and says “line 'em up jim, I need to know who to torture?”
Nope. The DoD IS guilty of putting untrainted people into positions of power like that one though, and you couple the poor training with the fact you’ve got patriotically brainwashed teenagers with no worldview, managing these prisoners
it’s a recipe, as were finding out, for disaster.
And y’know, if he’d have actually said, at the top of his lungs “HEY! THIS SHIT’S ALL WRONG, WE NEED TO EXAMINE THIS MESS!” I’d actually have some respect for his crooked ass, but he just tried to provoke a reaction by invoking horriffic images so apart from the reality of captivity, that he made himself look like a crackpot. No one’s being shoved, still alive, into gas ovens, or buried in mass unmarked graves, or being gassed en masse.
Jail sucks, Gitmo jail REALLY sucks, but for the last time, the comparisons are WRONG, and they were only made to inflame the passions of people who don’t deal well with the harsh nature of incarceration. Yeah, Gitmo is no $500 a plate fundraiser, but it’s SURE no picnic.
Sorry, that doesn’t wash. “The buck stops here.” The DoD is in charge, it’s happening on their watch, they are responsible. They should stand up like decent, honorable human beings, the kind of people that AMERICA is supposed to be about, and say, “We fucked up, we were wrong, and we’re going to fix it.”
Judging from the polls and other comments that I hear, the reality of what our government is doing in the name of freedom in a “war” that is supposed to be against terrorism, it would seem an increasing number of Americans don’t buy into what our country’s leadership is doing.
From my Southern hometown church newsletter today:
The Patriotic Cantata has ben cancelled due to low participation.
Is this verbal spittle intended to convince anyone of anything, or did you come up dry for a good closing line and have to punt?
If the former, then recall that Bosda is no flying monkey, but he’s SURE no Cheese on a Ritz! -Your logic is defeated.
Here is a fine example of the sort of histronics that make no sense to me.
Durbin dod not make the comparisons that you (and several others) have claimed. His actual remarks have been posted in this thread, twice.
He said, quite simply, that if the report about prisoner abuse had been delivered with no mention of the parties who did the abusing or who were abused, we would not be surprised to see the abuse described attributed to any of several horrific regimes. He made no claim that we were running a Gulag or that we were reenacting the Holocaust or the Killing Fields. He noted that a very specific act was consistent with stories we have heard about other groups who ignored human rights. If we do not want to be compared to groups that abuse human rights, we should not behave (or allow our agents to behave) in manners that are consistent with those other regimes.
The abuse that has been directed toward Durbin in this thread has been far less temperate than his actual comments.
As to the claim that we should try to soft-pedal the news–or our views of the news–I would note that that has been a consistent patteren of Right Wing dishonesty extending all the way back the the Reagan era. Once Reagan took the presidency (and further, when the Republicans took the Senate), there were frequent calls for Voice of America to stop being an objective news source and to begin being a better source of U.S. advertising. Yet, when the Iron Curtain finally fell, one of the persistent comments from the peoples who had lived behind it was that they appreciated that the American source of news included comments that were critical of America, while they could never trust TASS, Pravda, Iszvestia, etc., because those sources played up the evils of the West while denying that there were any problems in the Soviet countries. I see the same thing happening here. “Oh. We can’t speak poorly of what we have done: we’ll give ourselves a bad reputation..” Guys? We’ve GOT the bad reputation. Our people speaking out against our abuses are the one sign to the rest of the world that we may not be the monsters that they can already see through the actions of our illegal wars and extra-legal imprisonments.
Who has full access to Guantanamo? Who is able to make a report to the public about what is going on there? I know that the ICRC has limited access although they can meet with every prisoner in private. Their policy is never to make their reports public, but to discuss their findings privately with the country’s leadership. Have they used a different policy with Guantanamo?
Is there anything to back up the link (in this thread?) about members of our government wanting to cut our contributions to the International Red Cross?
A report on their website said that two juveniles are being held there. I thought all children had been released.
What kind of country holds children prisoner without trial?
Now you just hold on right there, Mr. Liberal Weenie with the transgendered username!
Trying to distract our attention with facts! We already know what he said, that’s not important. Whats important is what Mr. Frist and Mr. Sensenbrenner say that he said! There is truth, and there is facts, and all you got are facts!
Not enough for you? Well, then, bring out the big guns! Here is Mr. Newt Gingrich, a man who’s honor and integrity is legendary:
There was a time when Mr. Moto and Sam Stone were simply people with whom I disagreed and traded barbs with. It’s now seeming more and more like they are the enemy of everything this country needs
There was a time when Mr. Moto and Sam Stone were simply people with whom I disagreed and traded barbs with. It’s now seeming more and more like they are the enemy of everything this country needs to stand for, and that makes me very depressed.
Here’s what Durbin said, again:
If you honestly cannot put one of the regimes Durbin noted in that blank… well I dont’t believe you. You aren’t BEING honest. You are just a twisted apologist for something deeply unamerican and twisted. Please: resign your commendations. Turn in your citizenship, voluntarily. America was wasted on you.