Archives

9 May 2004

Rush Limbaugh has long spouted detestable ideas, passing them off as political discussion, when they're nothing more than ways to inspire ridicule and hate

And it couldn't have been more evident than last week when he broadcast his despicable take that the horrid pictures of tortured Iraqi prisoners were nothing more than a prank or some soldiers "blowing off steam". Limbaugh joked about the matter.
I don't know if it's just me, but these pictures look like anything you'd see Madonna or Britney Spears do on stage.

Yes, right, this sure sounds like a harmless fraternity prank:

A new photo has surfaced showing two German shepherd dogs about to brutalize a naked prisoner in Abu Ghraib prison.

The photo was obtained by Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker, who says other photos that will be published are even worse. "We have a photo of the dogs right at him. And a moment later, he is on the ground and there's a large gaping wound and a big pool of blood," said Hersh.

On the local Limbaugh Clear Channel radio affiliate here in Arizona's capital city, the local talk hosts continued to carry water for the debased Limbaugh. The "barely famous" one, Barry Young repeatedly pounded his point that these photos did not at all represent "torture" or "abuse", and were more akin to juvenile hijinks. All the while Donald Rumsfeld was testifying that even more horrific photos will be soon coming to light.

U.S. military officials told NBC News that the unreleased images showed U.S. soldiers severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi prisoner and “acting inappropriately with a dead body.” The officials said there was also a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys.

As troubling as these accounts are, I am further saddened to hear the justification for such barbarous and cruel actions. While I haven't seen numbers in black in white (yet), I hear an outpouring of "so what" sentiment. It grieves me, for I thought that America stood for freedom and justice, not the arbirtrary abuse administered to a prison population where a majority have been incarcerated simply on suspicion only.

A Red Cross report disclosed Monday said coalition intelligence officers estimated that 70-90 percent of Iraqi detainees were arrested by mistake and said Red Cross observers witnessed U.S. officers mistreating Abu Ghraib prisoners by keeping them naked in total darkness in empty cells.

You can view the US Army report on Iraqi Prisoner Torture at Abu Ghraib online and if you can stomach them, more photos of Iraqis being abused.