The Administration Has A Rummy-Ache
Arianna weighs in on the Abu Ghraib spin:
To hear Don Rumsfeld tell it, even though the Bush administration had been told back in January about the abuse and torture going on at Abu Ghraib ó and that there were photos documenting it ó the idea that this might be a very bad thing didnít really hit home until recently because no one in the White House had actually laid eyes on the photos.ìIt is the photographs that give one the vivid realization of what actually took place,î Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. ìWords donít do it.î
Really?
So being notified by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that U.S. soldiers were torturing and humiliating naked Iraqi prisoners in the very place that had once been Saddam Husseinís favorite Little Shop of Horrors wasnít vivid enough to get the alarm bells ringing on Pennsylvania Avenue?
Neither apparently were the non-visual warnings about the mistreatment of prisoners delivered by the Red Cross, Colin Powell and Paul Bremer.
Why not? Is the country being run by a bunch of preschoolers who canít process all those big words and will only sit still for a colorful picture book?
See Rummy spin. Spin, Rummy, spin.
Now, there's something those Bushies are very good at!
Ariana's one of the great plagiarists of our time, so we always have to wonder who she's stealing from at any given time. Given the highly-attenuated nature of this faked fit of outrage, I'm guessing Michael Moore was the source.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, Nick Berg is still minus his head.
Richard Bennett at May 13, 2004 6:16 PM
"Meanwhile, back in the real world, Nick Berg is still minus his head."
And that wouldn't be the case if Arianna weren't a plagiarist?
If you're suggesting that any commentary, regardless of its quality or style, is pointless in the face of this violence -- well, I know how you feel. I was on my way to Newark Airport when the planes hit the WTC. As it became clearer that I wouldn't be flying back to LA anytime soon, I began thinking of how I'd spend my time stranded on the east coast. I thought I'd do some writing, work on a paper. Then I was immediately hit with the sense that writing didn't matter, ideas didn't matter, nothing mattered. I'm happy to say that somehow I managed to get some writing done that week. The paper that I worked on in the days after 9/11 was eventually published -- and believe it or not, I got a phone call from the White House requesting a copy.
I guess my point is that writing is important, even Arianna's writing, because world events are making a lot of people feel powerless and physically ill right now. I know more than a few people who've decided to turn off the news, just to stay sane.
Lena at May 13, 2004 10:21 PM