"Not as bad as Saddam! Not as bad as Saddam!"

[takebackthewh]

Ok, you effin' moron. That makes it all good.

--------------------------------

The Newsroom Iconoclast
Despite Abu Ghraib, American soldiers still a force for good
Sunday, May 23, 2004
By Michael J. Bowers
Star columnist



... Then I was struck by the hypocrisy of Arab state leaders condemning us. Atrocities — real atrocities, not just having a finger pointed at your private parts — have a long history in the Middle East.

... Somehow, after all this, it's hard for me to feel a lot of outrage about Abu Ghraib anymore.

... The truth is that starting with World War II, and probably earlier, the most fortunate detainees and prisoners of war in the world have been those held by Americans.

... Even the Japanese-Americans who were interned in World War II lived in bearable conditions. The detention decision by President Roosevelt was a mistake that embarrasses America still today. But it led to no atrocities or torture.

... In contrast, American troops who survived Japanese prison camps say their captors would sometime dine on the liver of an executed soldier. They considered it a delicacy, boiled in soup or pan-fried in soy sauce.

... Then there is Guantanamo Bay today. Many Muslims there have a better standard of living than they did at home.

http://www.starnewspapers.com/star/spedit/col/23-co1.htm

[calimary]

1. He sounds like the f-ing National Enquirer.

They have a page in there about how American soldiers suffered a lot more in other countries' prisons than the Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib.

Damn! When I think of the "Enquirer-grade" material on bush that this tabloid should by all rights and purposes be eating up with a soup spoon, I am amazed at how hands-off they are about him. But let Clinton get a hangnail...

[thebigidea]

2. George W. Bush: Better than Hitler

http://www.terminalproduct.com/betterthanhitler.rm

[takebackthewh]

8. ROFL! nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. This is a talking point from tjhe right

Now reality is... Sadamn was a criminal but so are we... make sure to explain this in terms the morans will understand.

"Look son when the draft comes, and you are forced into the Army, so you can suport your war... well the fact that we no longer follow the Conventions means... that the enemy WILL use phosphorus lights on you in new and creative ways... becase WE DID IT."

Make it personal, that is the only way that the morans MIGHT just get it.

[KharmaTrain]

4. Non-Humans Can Always Justify Inhumanity

Listening to wingnuts is like hearing a 5 year old. Catch them in a lie and they'll go "well Johnny lied, too"...or tell them they did something bad and they'll say "well Johnny did the same thing, and even worse" to absolve their guilt. These children didn't grow up, they grew stupid and deadly.

Responsibility is the last thing these people can either handle or accept. It's always someone else's fault or someone did worse. This is the way the Repugnicans have justified racism, sexism, homophobia, class warfare and now torture and sexual perversion, asif this is something "normal" and the outrage IS the outrage.

I guess some feel by sitting for an hour or two on a Sunday morning and aping to the inivisible cloud being who gives them the ultimate power to exploit that they are cleared of any guilt or moral depravity. Combine this "superiority" with a myopic view of the world that has now made us hated across the globe and things thing pretty good from a wingnut's perspective.

Yep, they're finally feeling some heat to search their bereft soul, and we're seeing how empty they are. Shameful!

[FDRrocks]

5. That romantic account of moral relativism skips over Vietnam

rather conviently.

[Eric J in MN]

6. What about the prisoners at Guatanamo Bay who were beaten to death?

What about the prisoners at Guatanamo Bay who were beaten to death?

How great is their standard of living?

[bluestateguy]

7. What a nice sanitized corporate media puff piece

The author forgot to mention the wonderful treatment Union and Confederate prisoners received during the Civil War.

We heard a lot in the 1990's from these guys on the Right about "defining deviancy downward" and "lowering the bar" on morality. How quickly these folks forget, only now the issue is far more serious than a blow job in the Oval Office.