Wednesday, May 26, 2004
"WE'RE JUST LIKE SADDAM" I can only agree with the Free Democrat that this utterly vile filth, courtesy of the people who claim to be the proper party of opposition in Britain, can only be described as disgusting. Why Britain needs a party of moral equivalisers of the worst possible kind in form of the FlipDems I cannot say.
But there is one definite irony in that election ad: quite literally it's correct. This is really what we have done in human rights terms to Iraq. Namely that set-up pictures of mock torture can get the situation so worked up and we treat the abuses behind it as an unmitigated catastrophe. Why? Here's the issue prior to invasion (hat tip Silent Running):
But there is one definite irony in that election ad: quite literally it's correct. This is really what we have done in human rights terms to Iraq. Namely that set-up pictures of mock torture can get the situation so worked up and we treat the abuses behind it as an unmitigated catastrophe. Why? Here's the issue prior to invasion (hat tip Silent Running):
"They called all the prisoners out to the courtyard for what they called a 'celebration.' We all knew what they meant by 'celebration.' All the prisoners were chained to a pipe that ran the length of the courtyard wall. One prisoner, Amer al-Tikriti, was called out. They said if he didn't tell them everything they wanted to know, they would show him torture like he had never seen. He merely told them he would show them patience like they had never seen."
"This is when they brought out his wife, who was five months pregnant. One of the guards said that if he refused to talk he would get 12 guards to rape his wife until she lost the baby. Amer said nothing. So they did. We were forced to watch. Whenever one of us cast down his eyes, they would beat us."
"Amer's wife didn't lose the baby. So the guard took a knife, cut her belly open and took the baby out with his hands. The woman and child died minutes later. Then the guard used the same knife to cut Amer's throat." There is a moment of silence. Then Idrissi says: "What we have seen about the recent abuse at Abu Ghraib is a joke to us."
(. . .)
But most of all, they want recognition for what they, and thousands of others like them, have been through. And that people would stop saying "things were better under Saddam."
"Only criminals could say such a thing. The victims deserve better than this," Idrissi concludes.
