Better than I can explain
The Bush administration is working hard to prevent Americans from seeing photos it holds showing "American soldiers beating one prisoner almost to death, apparently raping a female prisoner, acting inappropriately with a dead body, and taping Iraqi guards raping young boys." Over at the indispensable Daily Kos, in response to suggestions that those trying to gain access to the photos are playing partisan politics, comes this shard of clarity:
To be honest, I don't even care if this effort looks partisan anymore. If being anti-child-sodomy is now considered the partisan position, then I'm going to be the biggest f---ing partisan on the planet, and to Hell with anyone who isn't.Word.
I'm tired of all of it. Just tired. I'm tired because the rest of the world has known this for a year, and we refuse to discuss it in this country. And in truth, we can't discuss it in this country without the (heavily censored) pictures, because without the pictures, the horrible, horrible actual pictures, the loathsome, brick-stupid f---ing news media doesn't see a story. And without the pictures, every bloated, pill-popping, corpse-like Rush Limbaugh clone in America will continue to claim it's all lies, all exaggerated, all phony.
Because, God f---ing knows, we would never even abuse even an inanimate Koran, and God help you if you report such a thing without the very pictures to see it happening before your eyes.
So here are the pictures. See it happening. So defend it, Rush. Go ahead and f---ing try. Maybe at some point, in this country -- maybe not now, maybe only after the most partisan, dishonest sacks of crap among us find themselves rotting deep under the ground, their much-sought Rapture having wholly abandoned them -- we will again be able to find some small shared moral base, some small point of humanity on which we can all agree, before God and country, this thing was wrong.
I won't hold my breath.
2 Comments:
Playing devil's advocate - what do we gain from seeing the pictures? The knowledge that some people in the military are evil? We already knew that. My God, we have people in the US that rape eighteen-month-old babies to death.
I don't know. Maybe the pictures would help someone understand, but if they do, that person would have to be either incredibly naive or incredibly uninformed, don't you think?
Fair point, Antimedia, but I believe we gain two important points. First off, we gain something that will get the public's attention. Some naive and uninformed people are living in world where American troops are always good, and where an optional war can be launched without unleashing the barbarism within.
Secondly, we gain a government that doesn't get to shield us from the consequences of our own actions. Why should Bush get to hide from the public the result of what they voted for? I prefer transparency in my government to paternalistic protection of my delicate sensibilities.
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