Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Depressing news review
I haven't written too much about the news over the last few weeks because I find it profoundly depressing. But I figure I should provide at least the public service of collecting in one place the recent developments I've seen, pertinent to Iraq and the Bush administration.
So here goes:
1. Rumsfield ordered that a suspect in Iraq be kept secretly, without records, and hidden from the Red Cross (is this a violation of international law?). Virtually everyone in the chain of command has his fingers in this one.
2. Iraqis overwhelmingly hate us and want us to leave, according to a US poll. The best face you can put on this is that perhaps anti-Americanism will unite them. But it is not good for our security, either at home or of our troops in the theater.
3. Bush must really want to be Reagan: now the Dept of Agriculture is classifying frozen french fries as a fresh vegetable. I guess every Republican has to have his comical vegetable story. But back to the real news.
4. A long list of former Republican and Democratic diplomatic officials are calling for Bush's defeat, saying he has damaged America's standing in the world and security.
5. Despite insistence to the contrary, the military is keeping track of some civilian casualties in Iraq. Moreover, the air strikes early in the war aimed at killing key Iraqi officials completely failed to nail any of the targets, but did kill hundreds of innocents.
6. The torture scandal gets worse and worse. If you haven't read the infamous memo of the Office of Legal Counsel justifying torture and law-breaking by the president, you should (and read this commentary, too; this one's also good). Also, note that the use of dogs against prisoners was allowed. Still think it's a few bad apples? Maybe the worst apple is at the top.
So here goes:
1. Rumsfield ordered that a suspect in Iraq be kept secretly, without records, and hidden from the Red Cross (is this a violation of international law?). Virtually everyone in the chain of command has his fingers in this one.
2. Iraqis overwhelmingly hate us and want us to leave, according to a US poll. The best face you can put on this is that perhaps anti-Americanism will unite them. But it is not good for our security, either at home or of our troops in the theater.
3. Bush must really want to be Reagan: now the Dept of Agriculture is classifying frozen french fries as a fresh vegetable. I guess every Republican has to have his comical vegetable story. But back to the real news.
4. A long list of former Republican and Democratic diplomatic officials are calling for Bush's defeat, saying he has damaged America's standing in the world and security.
5. Despite insistence to the contrary, the military is keeping track of some civilian casualties in Iraq. Moreover, the air strikes early in the war aimed at killing key Iraqi officials completely failed to nail any of the targets, but did kill hundreds of innocents.
6. The torture scandal gets worse and worse. If you haven't read the infamous memo of the Office of Legal Counsel justifying torture and law-breaking by the president, you should (and read this commentary, too; this one's also good). Also, note that the use of dogs against prisoners was allowed. Still think it's a few bad apples? Maybe the worst apple is at the top.
