Why isnt Al Gore our president?

George W. Bush has dishonored and humiliated our nation: By Al Gore

George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world.

He promised to 'restore honor and integrity to the White House.' Instead, he has brought deep dishonor to our country and built a durable reputation as the most dishonest President since Richard Nixon.

Honor? He decided not to honor the Geneva Convention. Just as he would not honor the United Nations, international treaties, the opinions of our allies, the role of Congress and the courts, or what Jefferson described as 'a decent respect for the opinion of mankind.' He did not honor the advice, experience and judgment of our military leaders in designing his invasion of Iraq. And now he will not honor our fallen dead by attending any funerals or even by permitting photos of their flag-draped coffins.

How did we get from September 12th , 2001, when a leading French newspaper ran a giant headline with the words 'We Are All Americans Now' and when we had the good will and empathy of all the world -- to the horror that we all felt in witnessing the pictures of torture in Abu Ghraib.
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What has me worried....

Wizard of Whimsy

Quietly getting ready to reinstate the draft

Congress.Org -- Issues and Legislation: " The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately.

$28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation."

Regarding the Torture of Others - The New York Times

The New York Times > Magazine > Regarding the Torture of Others: "If there is something comparable to what these pictures show it would be some of the photographs of black victims of lynching taken between the 1880's and 1930's, which show Americans grinning beneath the naked mutilated body of a black man or woman hanging behind them from a tree. The lynching photographs were souvenirs of a collective action whose participants felt perfectly justified in what they had done. So are the pictures from Abu Ghraib.
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How fascism starts by Molly Ivins

WorkingForChange-How fascism starts: "AUSTIN, Texas -- It's pretty easy to get to the point where you don't want to hear any more about Abu Ghraib prison and what went on there. But there are some really good reasons why Americans should take a look at why this happened."

Who is to blame?

United Press International: Army, CIA want torture truths exposed: "President George W. Bush in his weekly radio address Saturday claimed that the Abu Ghraib abuses were only 'the actions of a few' and that they did not 'reflect the true character of the Untied States armed forces.'

But what enrages many serving senior Army generals and U.S. top-level intelligence community professionals is that the 'few' in this case were not primarily the serving soldiers who were actually encouraged to carry out the abuses and even then take photos of the victims, but that they were encouraged to do so, with the Army's well-established safeguards against such abuses deliberately removed by high-level Pentagon civilian officials."

Responsiblity started at the top

MSNBC - The Roots of Torture: "The Bush administration created a bold legal framework to justify this system of interrogation, according to internal government memos obtained by NEWSWEEK. What started as a carefully thought-out, if aggressive, policy of interrogation in a covert war—designed mainly for use by a handful of CIA professionals—evolved into ever-more ungoverned tactics that ended up in the hands of untrained MPs in a big, hot war. Originally, Geneva Conventions protections were stripped only from Qaeda and Taliban prisoners. But later Rumsfeld himself, impressed by the success of techniques used against Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay, seemingly set in motion a process that led to their use in Iraq, even though that war was supposed to have been governed by the Geneva Conventions."

You have got to be kidding! Camp Redemption?

local6.com - News - U.S. Military Opens Abu Ghraib Prison To Media: "Abu Ghraib is where U.S. troops sexually humiliated and abused Iraqi prisoners in their custody. Its name has been changed to 'Camp Redemption' at the suggestion of the Iraqi Governing Council."

Army Times - Interesting outlook on Abu Ghraib

Army Times - News - More News: "The entire affair is a failure of leadership from start to finish. From the moment they are captured, prisoners are hooded, shackled and isolated. The message to the troops: Anything goes."

Lowering the bar on prisoner treatment

The New Yorker: Fact: "“In an odd way,” Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said, “the sexual abuses at Abu Ghraib have become a diversion for the prisoner abuse and the violation of the Geneva Conventions that is authorized.” Since September 11th, Roth added, the military has systematically used third-degree techniques around the world on detainees. “Some jags hate this and are horrified that the tolerance of mistreatment will come back and haunt us in the next war,” Roth told me. “We’re giving the world a ready-made excuse to ignore the Geneva Conventions. Rumsfeld has lowered the bar.”
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How can something like this happen?

I am trying to figure out how the torture at Abu Ghraib happened.

Has there been anything like this before in the history of the American Army? Why is this happening now?

I think part of the problem is the tone set by top leaders of this war. I think what is missing this time around in the chain of command is a fundamental respect for Human Rights and a racist dehumanizing of the enemy. When you demonize people, degrade a religious or ethnic group it become easier to treat them as less than human. For the people that are at the bottom who carry out the actual work, its important to know how the leadership views what you are doing. If the leadership says that these people are evil, demons, subhuman, animals or in other words not fully entitled to humane treatment then it becomes very easy for things to degenerate the way they did at Abu Ghraib. It all comes from the attitudes of those at the top.

Misleader.org: Daily Mislead: "President Bush has publicly deplored the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, having apologized for the fiasco. Yet, just days after his apology, the White House is refusing to condemn its right-wing allies who are making light of the situation and defending torture. "

Was systematic sexual toruture an official US Army polocy?

The New Yorker: Fact: "the Pentagon’s operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq."

Lieberman says Torture is ok... wtf?

Newsday.com - National News: "On CNN's 'Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, called the allegations serious and said they should be investigated. But, he said, if a special interrogation unit focused on suspected terrorists could have prevented Sept. 11, 'I don't think there are many Americans who would say we shouldn't use whatever means are necessary to extract that information.'
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Oh really? Well, this is one American that thinks that there should be limits set on the use of toured.

9-11 was a Crime! it was not an act of War. It is no different from any other crime where people were murdered except the size of the disaster. We have laws and due process for dealing with crimes and they do not include torture. America should never torture anyone for any reason.

The constitution doesn't say you have certain rights until accused of terrorism. It says you have rights. Period. There should be no circumstances in which you can loose your rights and no situation where torture is justified.

Torture is never OK no matter what the crime. Its statements that include the phrase "whatever means" that create an environment which can justify the abuses in Abu Ghraib.

Beetle Bailey in Abu Ghraib

Very Interesting.... I hate it when people say "they hate freedom". That is the kind of comment that only someone who has not traveled at all can make. If you can honestly say that anyone hates freedom, then you have never met them.

Beetle Ghraib: "Beetle Ghraib
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Political Animal: Comment on Understanding our Enemies

"You must know your enemy to defeat him."


Sun Tzu:Know your enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourse"

But I perfer Linconlns take on it...

"I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend."

Kurt Vonnegut on current events

I have not read a lot of Kurt Vonnegut but from what he wrote yesterday its evident that at 81 years old, the guy is still thinking hard and writing provocative prose.

Cold Turkey -- In These Times: "But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of AmericaÂ’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas."

TIME.com: Military Personnel: Don't Read This!

Is this unbeliveable or what?


TIME.com: Military Personnel: Don't Read This!: "An email to Pentagon staff marked 'URGENT IT (Information Technology) BULLETIN: Taguba Report' orders employees not to read or download the Taguba report at Fox News.

The Washington Monthly is amazing....

The Washington Monthly: "MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AT ABU GHRAIB....The Los Angeles Times has obtained investigative records of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal that include statements from Spc. Jeremy Sivi"

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