Pretty Words vs Reality

I've had some more occasion to reflect on Bush's stirring inauguration speech. Wasn't it a wonderful evocation of America's highest ideals? A reminder that we are a beacon to an anxious world, a bringer of justice, a messenger of liberty? Or was it just a string of pretty words that bear only a tenuous relation to how Mr. Bush and his cabinet have actually spread freedom in the past four years? Here are examples of how our country has been dispensing law and justice in Iraq so far.

• The President:
"Every man and woman on this earth has rights and dignity and matchless value because they bear the image of the maker of heaven and earth."
• Reality:
"There is the battered face of prisoner No. 153399, and the bloodied body of another prisoner, wrapped in cellophane and packed in ice. There is a photograph of an empty room, splattered with blood. The 372nd’s abuse of prisoners seemed almost routine — a fact of Army life that the soldiers felt no need to hide."

• The President:
"Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen, and defended by citizens, and sustained by the rule of law."
• Reality:
"[U.S. investigator Major General Antonio] Taguba’s report [on Abu Ghraib] listed some of the wrongdoing: Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; ... sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick."

• The President:
"Our goal ... is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom and make their own way."
• Reality:
"...the Pentagon acknowledged that, according to an autopsy report, Mowhoush died of “asphyxia due to smothering and chest compression” showing 'evidence of blunt force trauma to the chest and legs' and said that a homicide investigation was underway. Reportedly, Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer and another officer slid a sleeping bag over Mowhoush’s head and rolled him over and over while asking questions. Welshofer is accused of sitting on Mowhoush’s chest and placing his hands over his mouth."

• The President:
"America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies."
• Reality:
"[T]he photos and videos so far unreleased by the Pentagon show American soldiers 'having sex with a female Iraqi prisoner', and a secret report by General Antonio Taguba into the scandal confirms that US guards videotaped and photographed naked female prisoners and that 'a male MP [military police] guard' is shown 'having sex with a female detainee'. Yesterday Prof. Shaker, who began researching the subject this year for Amnesty International, said she believed the woman involved had been killed."

• The President:
"We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people."
• Reality:
"The documents released yesterday portray a series of abuse cases stretching beyond the Abu Ghraib prison where photos surfaced this year of US troops forcing prisoners — often naked — to pose in humiliating positions. The files document a crush of abuse allegations."

• The President:
"Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of our ideals."
• Reality:
"Military records state that [prisoner Nagm Saddoon Hatab] was asphyxiated when a Marine guard grabbed his throat in an attempt to move him, accidentally breaking a bone that cut off his air supply. Another Marine is charged with kicking Hatab in the chest in the hours before his death — several of his ribs were broken. Hatab was also covered with feces and left under the sun for hours."

• The President:
"The United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."
• Reality: "U.S. Navy documents released today by the American Civil Liberties Union reveal that abuse and even torture of detainees by U.S. Marines in Iraq was widespread. One Navy criminal investigator sent an e-mail in June 2004 describing his Iraq caseload "exploding" with "high visibility cases."

• The President:
"In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty."
• Reality:
"Substantiated incidents of torture and abuse by U.S. Marines [include] severely burning a detainee’s hands by covering them in alcohol and igniting them (Al Mumudiyah, August 2003), and shocking a detainee with an electric transformer, causing the detainee to 'dance' as he was shocked (Al Mumudiyah, April 2004)."

• The President:
"In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character, on integrity and tolerance toward others and the rule of conscience in our own lives."
• Reality:
"Sexual and physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners continued at least three months after the Abu Ghraib scandal was revealed, according to accounts by alleged victims published in the latest issue of Vanity Fair magazine. In a report on 60 hours of interviews Vanity Fair writer Donovan Webster conducted with 10 former detainees, he quoted several accounts of mistreatment that included Iraqi prisoners being sexually assaulted by American soldiers or being hooded, beaten, subjected to electric shock and kept in cages or crates."

• The President:
" The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know to serve your people, you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side."
• Reality:
"...[I]t's hard to avoid concluding that responsibility for the Abu Ghraib atrocities goes straight to the top, both in the Pentagon and the White House, and that varying degrees of blame can be ascribed to officials up and down the chain of command."

Comments

[RKWM]

Your blog made me cry! No one in this country is doing anything. I feel as though I am watching my country die!

If the bloggers do not join together in an organized and determined effort to inform Americans and make them think than who will? The media is no longer free in this country---it is a megaphone for the politicians.

There are central questions that MUST be answered in the hearts and minds of each American. I wish the bloggers --all of them who are not part of the controlled media----would take a day (maybe sunday) and answer or explore basic questions of principles. They should hold the politicians feet to the fire. They should hold the minister and priests feet to the fire. They should hold ANYONE in America who by getting on TV and expressing an opinion as though it were fact to the fire!

Here are some of the questions that I would love to read about:

CAN FREEDOM EXIST WITHOUT TRUTH?

CAN FAITH MURDER TRUTH?

IF WE ACCERPT THE PRECEPTS OF THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT THEN---IS THE DEVIL THE ENEMY OF TRUTH OR IS THE WELL MEANING CHRISTIAN WHO IGNORES A LIE TO ADVANCE EVEN THE NOBLIEST OF POSITIONS AN AGENT OF THE DEVIL?

CAN AMERICANS DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND AND TELL OUR POLITICIANS WHAT WE EXPECT FROM THEM?

SHOULD ANYONE WHO MAKES OVER $100,000.00 A YEAR NOT BE REQUIRED TO SHOW UP FOR WORK EVERYDAY? WHY ARE THE SEATS ALWAYS EMPTY ON C-SPAN?

WHAT ARE THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE CONGRESS TO ACT ON AMERICAN IDEALS? IS THE CHAIR OF A COMMITTEE WHO TALKS WITH AN OFFICIAL UNDER OATH PERMITTED TO 'CHOSE' TO IGNORE LIES TOLD UNDER OATH? DOES THAT CHAIR OWN THE SENATE COMMITTEE OR DOES HE SERVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND IN DOING SO BEAR OBLIGATION TO ACT WHEN ANYONE DISREGARDS OR DISRESPECTS THE OATH TO TELL THE TRUTH?

IF THE POLITICIANS IN WASHINGTON ARE TO ACT AS GATEKEEPERS OF INFORMATION IN THE NAME OF NATIONAL SECURITY---WHICH I BELIEVE THEY MUST---SHOULD THEY NOT (EVEN IF NOT UNDER OATH) BE HELD TO A STANDARD OF EXCURIATING TRUTH AND ACCURACY WHEN THEY REPORT ANY IOTA OF INFORMATION THAT WILL BE ALLOWED TO SLIDE THROUGH THE GATE?

SENATOR ALLEN SAID THIS MORNING THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO HOLD THIS ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS VIA THE ELECTION. WHAT IS HIS INDICATION THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THUS WERE OKAY WITH THE BUSH LIES? THE POLLS TELL HIM THE OPPOSITE! COULD YOU DO AN OPEN BLOGG ASKING THESE QUESTIONS? HOW MANY THINGS WILL THEY TRY TO SAY THEIR VICTORY INDICATES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE? DID WE VOTE TO END TRUTH IN POLITICS? WILL OUR CYNICAL FEELINGS ABOUT OUR POLITICIANS CAUSE US TO IGNORE THE DEATH OR OUR NATION?

I would be just as happy to hear from you personally---if you feel there is any comfort that may be offered to my dying nation. I know you can't write what I feel but if you can tell me your thoughts I would appreciate it!

[Carlton Hickok]

Aristotle said words to the effect that corrupt means will corrupt even the most noble ends. I think that sums up my feelings. And my fears.

[Rob]

Beautifully done. I hate to point out aesthetics when the subject (and the detail) is so disturbing, but juxtaposing the president's words with descriptions of torture was a fantastic idea.