What gives the US the Right to tear down Abu Garib Prison?

[saracat]

Doesn't that belong to Iraq? Shouldn't they be the ones to decide if it be maintained as a memorial? Is this just being done to quickly hide evidence and did we want it done before the takeover so the Iraqis can't question it?

[tritsofme]

1. Many Dem senators and congressman have been calling

for this since the scandal broke.

I agree with this, and I'm actually surprised shrub went for it.

[saracat]

16. The senators and Congresspeople have no right

to tear down something they don't own either.This is NOT their country and not their prison. We didn't demolish Auchwitz ,did we?

[catzies]

2. Ah, it'll turn into a contract for Bechtel and Halliburton anyway.

Demolishing and rebuilding the new prison should make them another 100 million. Who's counting anymore...

[Hubert Flottz]

12. Bechtel/Brown&Root/Topf & Sons!

I think IG Farben might get a contract too!

[ezee]

3. I dont care if we tear it down

I do care if WE, the TAX PAYERS, of the US PAY for its reconstruction.

[Imalittleteapot]

4. Outsource the prison demolition.

Hire Iraqis to tear the prison down and pay them a decent wage.
This is not a job for big bucks Haliburton.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[KoKo]

6. BUT....he says it won't be torn down until the New One is Built! Hmmm

wonder how many years that will take. After all they are going to still need prisons given what's going to go on there in the next months. :-(

More Bush lies. He says something just to get it out there, but then he never does anything about it.

[troublemaker]

7. That whole section was hilarious

Everything he said was already policy long before the prison scandal.

Last September's 84 Billion (or whatever it was) included one Billion--with a B-- US dollars for the new prison. That means Iraqis would be happy to build it for $125,000 but will never get the chance.

[Columbia]

9. Oh, they'll build it alright

With contractor pocketing the $875,000 pure profit.

[mopaul]

8. well, we own it, and we're gonna build em a shiny new one

where absolutely nothing will go wrong ever.

[maggrwaggr]

10. why wouldn't you want it torn down?

I don't understand.

They should have torn down Saddam's palaces and prisons the second they moved into the country.

Instead, they fucking moved IN to them and set up shop.

Talk about sending the wrong signal.

These guys are simply fools, the men who ran this invasion.

[saracat]

15. Because It isn't ours to tear down. We don't own it.

Would you want your neighbor to demolish your house without your permission? I ,as an American, don't actually have the right to want OR not want , the prison dowm. It is not mine and is not my business.

[maggrwaggr]

18. If I recall, we tore down all of Hitler's monuments, no?

so when we went into Iraq, we should have torn down his palaces, his prisons, everything he might have been proud of.

But we didn't.

It's too late now, that's the problem I have with it, is that it's now an obvious ploy to gain some brownie points.

Way too little, way too late.

[Pachamama]

21. Tore Down Hitler's Monuments- not the Concentration Camps-they serve

now as eternal reminders so that it never happens again....Bush doesn't want his legacy remembered forever there - as being a criminal torturer like Saddam...

[saracat]

23. Depends what you consider

a"monument" Most German Reich Buildings were reused, and left intact, including prisons. We may have destroyed Hitler statues. I don't know. But as someone else posted in concurence,Aushwitz and the other camps were left standing as both reminders and I think memorials. We did not give the Iraqis the choice.And BTW the Germans were our "enimies".We are supposedly "liberating" the Iraqis. There is a difference.

[Stockholm]

28. No but the Nazis tried to demolish the traces of the concentration

camps before retreating (and succeeding in some places).

Most important point however is the symbol this place have for the Iraqi people. If the choose to tear it down and put something else there to remember or if they want to keep it as a reminder of past atrocities (mainly Iraqi) then it should be their decision and theirs alone.

[MisterP]

17. as a reminder

like the Concentration Camps, for example, and battlefields

[Jack Rabbit]

11. Hey, the Bushies OWN Iraq, don't they?

[henslee]

13. Too - fucken - shay. I agree. I agree I agree!!!!!!!

[Morning Dew]

14. He wants to tear down that other one...

the one he calls Abu Ga-rab.

twice.

at least.

[genius]

19. They want to destory evidence

[FDRrocks]

20. Whoever gave us the right to destroy thier holy monuments and museums n/t

[maggrwaggr]

22. and who gave us the right to do this to their children?

[suzijane]

36. For another photo op, of course

Remember Reagan and "Tear Down This Wall!!!" ?

Bush wants to stand in front of the prison with a bullhorn and yell "Tear Down This Prison!" while about 500 uncomfortable looking US soldiers, perfectly racially balanced and gender composed, in full battle gear, stand behind him (but only the shortest ones near him, so he looks taller) with a banner that says something like "God Bless America - Support Our Troops - Re-elect Bush 2004"

[Kimber Scott]

24. Bush said in his speech the Iraqis would have to approve

before they tore it down.

[markses]

27. And through what mechanism would "the Iraqis" approve?

The sham Iraqi government?

Please.

[Kimber Scott]

34. Just repeating what he said.

I think even "sham" Iraqis can think for themselves.

[markses]

35. Oh, I think real Iraqis can think for themselves

I just don't think the sham government represents those thoughts legitimately.

[markses]

25. What gives the US the right to do ANYTHING in Iraq?!?

The US is operating like an international bandit-nation, with the occupation troops as the frontline criminals. The US has no juridical authority to even be in Iraq at this point, much less make decisions on the construction status of prisons.

I think too few people understand this simple point: The US is a criminal invader, your nation little better than a home-invader and kidnapper. The US has no rights in Iraq. It is behaving as a terrorist state committing countless acts of murder.

At the end of the day, since your nation fancies itself a Republic of some sort, it is all of you who are responsible for each murder. Hard to face, but true.

[Karenina]

26. Truth is ultimately

EMPOWERING.

[Alpha Wolf]

30. What country are you from, markses?

n/c

[markses]

31. The United States of America

Well, actually, New York City.

Why?

[Alpha Wolf]

32. because...

You wrote:

"The US is a criminal invader, your nation little better than a home-invader and kidnapper. The US has no rights in Iraq. It is behaving as a terrorist state committing countless acts of murder.

At the end of the day, since your nation fancies itself a Republic of some sort, it is all of you who are responsible for each murder. Hard to face, but true."

You referred several times to the U.S. as "your nation". This just made is sound like you were from another country.

[Alpha Wolf]

29. Bush* said something about...

"with the Iraqis' permission." Anyway, I think I heard that.

[Ms. Clio]

33. Didn't you hear Tom Brokaw?

After we started the war, he reminded us that "in a few days, we are going to own this country."

I saw a car the other day with an American flag sticker on the gas tank.