Advice and Dissent

One of the more annoying affectations of columnists is addressing their columns to the President. Tom Friedman of the NYT apparently thinks his key role as an Iraq War enabler should entitle him to be heard by the Pres. In this, his latest folly he asks the President to shut down the Gitmo torture center. Fat chance.

Of course he does have some rather good arguments:
If you want to appreciate how corrosive Guantánamo has become for America's standing abroad, don't read the Arab press. Don't read the Pakistani press. Don't read the Afghan press. Hop over here to London or go online and just read the British press! See what our closest allies are saying about Gitmo. And when you get done with that, read the Australian press and the Canadian press and the German press.

It is all a variation on the theme of a May 8 article in The Observer of London that begins, "An American soldier has revealed shocking new details of abuse and sexual torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay in the first high-profile whistle-blowing account to emerge from inside the top-secret base."
And more of the same, like:
And it is now obvious from reports in my own paper and others that the abuse at Guantánamo and within the whole U.S. military prison system dealing with terrorism is out of control. Tell me, how is it that over 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody so far? Heart attacks? This is not just deeply immoral, it is strategically dangerous.
He has a good case alright, but it won't impress Bush. To the extent that he is aware of world opinion, he is contemptuous of it. He's proud to be a bully and proud to appoint them, proud to be offensive, proud to preside over a torture machine that outrages the fastidious. No US President has exhibited a greater disdain for what Jefferson called "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind."

Besides, if he shut down Gitmo, where would he build the replacement torture center?

Comments

  1. Anonymous10:13 PM

    It's people like you who are undermining the war effort and endagering our soldiers. You ought to be ashamed.

    George Bush is a President who sticks up for America.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CapitalistImperialistPig10:21 PM

    So patriot, have you served or are you serving? If not, why not shut tfu.

    It's those who commit the crimes, and especially those who encouraged them, that are harming our country, not the reporters who report to America what the rest of the world already knows.

    Like they say in Prison - if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. We are all doing time for GW's crimes.

    ReplyDelete

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