 (From the Washington Post today) In this cropped photograph, Army Pfc. Lynndie England of the 372nd Military Police Company, an Army Reserve unit based in Cresaptown, Md., holds a leash tied around a naked man’s neck in an Iraqi prison.(From Yahoo News yesterday) President Bush addressed the Arab world on television, but stopped short of saying he was sorry. He said the abuses were "abhorrent" and do not represent "the America that I know."
Midland, Texas, 1950, kitchen of a ranch style home. It's very hot and dusty outside.
Barbara Bush: George Junior, you spilled milk on the table. What do you say?
George Junior: Nothin'! I didn't spill it!
Barbara Bush: Yes, you did, and I'm asking you nicely now, Georgie. What do you say to Mommy when you do something bad?
George: Nothin'!
Barbara Bush: [reaches across the table and raps 4 year old George's head with her knuckles.] Talk to Mommy! What do you say?
George: (crying) Nothin'! Nothin'! Nothin'!
Barbara Bush: [Slaps George on the side of the head.] Little man, you're making me very ashamed! Say you're sorry to Mommy! Now!
[George silently sobs. Barbara begins shaking him violently, slapping his face and shoulders.] Say you're sorry! Say you're ashamed! Do it! [George Bush Senior walks in.]
George Bush Sr.: Hon, have you seen my golf shoes? UPDATE: Faced with ongoing, near-catastrophic bad press, the President finally, belatedly apologized today--or says he did. The man still can't say the words "I'm sorry," because of all his Mommy issues. Also, the "apology" is worthless since he still voices support for the creepy Rumsfeld and hasn't fired anyone.
UPDATE 2: An Aussie paper interviewed some folks from Lynddie England's hometown (choice quotes are in the comments). This may not have been the most balanced reporting, but still, one man thinks "we went to Iraq to help the jackasses" and can't understand why they're shooting at us. That should be Exhibit A in the case of how the major media failed to educate the public about our unprovoked invasion of Iraq. More thoughts on Ms. England here.
Good Steve Gilliard bit: Kevin Drum calls [Bush] the failed CEO, which I agree with. Not that I respect Drum's hemming and hawing much, and this is the man who's war he supported, but he's dead on here. My question would be that how could he expect the war to go right when the people running it are clones of Bush?
The same with Josh Marshall, who I respect a great deal more. This is the same guy who's war he backed. Now that it's all turned to shit, he's decided Bush is a bad leader. Well, he was a bad leader in 2001, 2002 and in February, 2003. Now, it's May, 2004, and he's still the same bad leader. Now, if Josh is bright enough to get a Ph.D from Brown, why couldn't he figure out Bush was going to eventually wind up in this hole?
Bush has created a Republic of Fear, where people, when they aren't jumping from fear of an Al Qaeda attack, they have to fear a vengeful White House seeking to ruin their reputations if they challenge them.
Gilliard's comments are similar to my concerns about Feinstein, Kerry, et al, saying "we didn't know he would fuck this up so badly." Come on.
The Indiana lynching photo came to mind due to the cavalier attitude of the lynch mob. Not just the stereotypical pissed-off southern white male redneck, but women-folk in party dresses, men in ties, out on a lark, having fun. A god damned social event. This goes beyond the banality of evil, it's the party animals of evil.
The merkins in the abuse photos aren't immune to the suffering of others. They are taking delight.
Hmmm. That's not how I read it. The threesome over on the left look like they're schmoozing at a Church social and those dudes on the right look pretty satisfied smoking their cigars, but others look somber or confused. Especially riveting is the All-American bigot in the center, righteously pointing upward for the camera. I would contrast him with Mr. and Mrs. Thumbs Up in the Abu Ghraib photo, who really seem to have no feelings beyond their own narcissism. The lynching picture does look like Our Town gone horribly wrong; the range of crowd reactions reminds me a bit of the Weegee photo Their First Murder, which is even more random.
"...supreme confidence to arrogance, then to almost willful blindness."
Getting a lot of unwanted search requests for Ms. England so I added a 1 to her name. (Changed it back--this'll die down soon enough.) Sure, she's a freak, people, but everyone in that prison was, apparently. Looks like she's going to be the anti-Jessica Lynch, another young West Virginia female who becomes a poster girl for something--in this case the "dark side."
"almost(?!) willful blindness"
The Aussie Daily Telegraph dispatched a reporter to talk the folks in Lynddie's home town. Here are some choice excerpts from the America I do hate:
A colleague of Lynndie's father said people in Fort Ashby [W. Va.] were sick of the whingeing.
"We just had an 18-year-old from round here killed by the Iraqis," he said.
"We went there to help the jackasses and they started blowing us up. Lynndie didn't kill 'em, she didn't cut 'em up. She should have shot some of the suckers." [What a fucking idiot. --ed.]
[...]
At the dingy Corner Club Saloon they think she has done nothing wrong.
"A lot of people here think they ought to just blow up the whole of Iraq," Colleen Kesner said.
"To the country boys here, if you're a different nationality, a different race, you're sub-human. That's the way girls like Lynndie are raised.
"Tormenting Iraqis, in her mind, would be no different from shooting a turkey. Every season here you're hunting something. Over there, they're hunting Iraqis."
In Fort Ashby, in the isolated Appalachian mountains 260km west of Washington, the poor, barely-educated and almost all-white population talk openly about an active Ku Klux Klan presence.
There is little understanding of the issues in Iraq and less of why photographs showing soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company, mostly from around Fort Ashby, abusing prisoners has caused a furore.
I think Lynddie England should serve the maximum prison sentence, (heard on news that it was 38 years).
She can't justify her actions by saying she was following orders. If a supervisor told me to do something like that at a job, I would have declined, or resigned my post. Detainees have rights too. It is horrendous what Lynddie England and the other accused did to the prisoners - they are human beings - sons, brothers, husbands and fathers.
Ms.Englands smile is mocking, cruel, smug.She is said to be moody because she is pregnant. She deserves to be more than that for the mental and physical trauma that she inflicted on the detainees.
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(From Yahoo News yesterday) President Bush addressed the Arab world on television, but stopped short of saying he was sorry. He said the abuses were "abhorrent" and do not represent "the America that I know."
Midland, Texas, 1950, kitchen of a ranch style home. It's very hot and dusty outside.
Barbara Bush: George Junior, you spilled milk on the table. What do you say?
George Junior: Nothin'! I didn't spill it!
Barbara Bush: Yes, you did, and I'm asking you nicely now, Georgie. What do you say to Mommy when you do something bad?
George: Nothin'!
Barbara Bush: [reaches across the table and raps 4 year old George's head with her knuckles.] Talk to Mommy! What do you say?
George: (crying) Nothin'! Nothin'! Nothin'!
Barbara Bush: [Slaps George on the side of the head.] Little man, you're making me very ashamed! Say you're sorry to Mommy! Now!
[George silently sobs. Barbara begins shaking him violently, slapping his face and shoulders.] Say you're sorry! Say you're ashamed! Do it!
[George Bush Senior walks in.]
George Bush Sr.: Hon, have you seen my golf shoes?
UPDATE: Faced with ongoing, near-catastrophic bad press, the President finally, belatedly apologized today--or says he did. The man still can't say the words "I'm sorry," because of all his Mommy issues. Also, the "apology" is worthless since he still voices support for the creepy Rumsfeld and hasn't fired anyone.
UPDATE 2: An Aussie paper interviewed some folks from Lynddie England's hometown (choice quotes are in the comments). This may not have been the most balanced reporting, but still, one man thinks "we went to Iraq to help the jackasses" and can't understand why they're shooting at us. That should be Exhibit A in the case of how the major media failed to educate the public about our unprovoked invasion of Iraq. More thoughts on Ms. England here.
- tom moody 5-06-2004 10:39 am
Good Steve Gilliard bit:
- tom moody 5-06-2004 7:18 pm
Gilliard's comments are similar to my concerns about Feinstein, Kerry, et al, saying "we didn't know he would fuck this up so badly." Come on.
The Indiana lynching photo came to mind due to the cavalier attitude of the lynch mob. Not just the stereotypical pissed-off southern white male redneck, but women-folk in party dresses, men in ties, out on a lark, having fun. A god damned social event. This goes beyond the banality of evil, it's the party animals of evil.
The merkins in the abuse photos aren't immune to the suffering of others. They are taking delight.
- mark 5-07-2004 1:45 am
Hmmm. That's not how I read it. The threesome over on the left look like they're schmoozing at a Church social and those dudes on the right look pretty satisfied smoking their cigars, but others look somber or confused. Especially riveting is the All-American bigot in the center, righteously pointing upward for the camera. I would contrast him with Mr. and Mrs. Thumbs Up in the Abu Ghraib photo, who really seem to have no feelings beyond their own narcissism. The lynching picture does look like Our Town gone horribly wrong; the range of crowd reactions reminds me a bit of the Weegee photo Their First Murder, which is even more random.
- tom moody 5-07-2004 2:39 am
"...supreme confidence to arrogance, then to almost willful blindness."
- bill 5-07-2004 10:39 pm
Getting a lot of unwanted search requests for Ms. England so I added a 1 to her name. (Changed it back--this'll die down soon enough.) Sure, she's a freak, people, but everyone in that prison was, apparently. Looks like she's going to be the anti-Jessica Lynch, another young West Virginia female who becomes a poster girl for something--in this case the "dark side."
- tom moody 5-08-2004 5:16 am
"almost(?!) willful blindness"
- mark 5-08-2004 5:58 am
The Aussie Daily Telegraph dispatched a reporter to talk the folks in Lynddie's home town. Here are some choice excerpts from the America I do hate:
[...]- tom moody 5-08-2004 9:57 am
I think Lynddie England should serve the maximum prison sentence, (heard on news that it was 38 years).
She can't justify her actions by saying she was following orders. If a supervisor told me to do something like that at a job, I would have declined, or resigned my post. Detainees have rights too. It is horrendous what Lynddie England and the other accused did to the prisoners - they are human beings - sons, brothers, husbands and fathers.
Ms.Englands smile is mocking, cruel, smug.She is said to be moody because she is pregnant. She deserves to be more than that for the mental and physical trauma that she inflicted on the detainees.
- Ashanti (guest) 8-04-2004 6:59 pm