Wednesday, October 19, 2005

leading by (bad) example



o.k. so you're an iraqi and you're country is being led to democracy by america -

a few things to ponder:

1. bush telling republicans that one reason they should support harriet miers for the u.s. supreme court was because of "her religion." she is described as a devout evangelical christian.

2.how would americans feel if they picked up their newspapers next week and read that the president of iraq justified the appointment of an iraqi supreme court justice by telling iraqis: 'don't pay attention to his lack of legal expertise. pay attention to the fact that he is a muslim fundamentalist and prays at a saudi-funded wahhabi mosque.' is that the iraq bush sent america's sons to build and to die for?

3.how about the bush team trying to defend its right to use torture in iraq and afghanistan. while america and iraq can feel heartened by the fact that the senate voted 90 to 9 to ban u.s. torture of military prisoners, citizens of both countries might be depressed by reports that the white house might veto the bill because of that amendment, which would ban "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of p.o.w.'s.

virtually every extended family in iraq has someone who has been tortured or killed in a baathist prison. yet, already, more than 100 prisoners of war have died in u.s. custody. how is that possible from the 'greatest democracy' in the world? there must be no place for torture in the future iraq.

democracy laced with hypocrisy doesn't a respected nation make...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

(good blog)

Hipocracy? Maybe, but many of "us" believe that W is sincere. Maybe it is unintentional hipocracy, if there is such a thing. I think it is more like irony.

Clay Cravens from Texas (formerly of Clapham in the 80's)

nutty said...

hi clay,
well, he may be sincere, but i sadly suspect that there is no such thing as unintentional hypocrisy. sorry, but i refuse to accept that all the iraqis that have died can be viewed with any sense of irony. especially when w is the man in charge of pressing the buttons.

i'm just not sold on rhetoric. good is as good does, not what you say you're going to do. how many iraqi civilians have to die in the current occupation in iraq?

as for being sincere, i bet the iraqi news (unlike the u.s media) show their dead to their own people on an all sadly too frequent basis. sincerity starts with telling and showing the whole story.

you might think me biased. you're probably right. i'm half iraqi.

Anonymous said...

Bush sincere???????

You have got to be kidding me,this has got to be a low point in US history for cynical, manipulative soviet style politics. Bush is just the hood ornament for the military industrial complex that has invaded the white house.

Ollie, English in San Francisco (ashamed of Blair too)lover of deep house which is how I got here