May 08, 2004

Wit and Wisdom From New York Post Letter-Writers

I love how extreme events bring out extreme partisanship. Much the way 9/11 brought out the abnormal idiocy of some leftists, the Iraq prison-abuse scandal has encouraged the true wackos of the right to come to show their true colors.

First there was Rush Limbaugh comparing the Abu Ghraib atrocities to a fraternity/Skull & Bones ititatiation. Then James Taranto blamed the events on the cancellation of college ROTC programs, while Linda Chavez laid blame at the feet of the presence of women in the military.

(I especially liked Sullivan's response to the latter: "Look, I know what it's like to have to write a column. You can't always come up with a new angle. But please.")

Anyway, now we have the usual gang of idiots, also known as the New York Post's letter writers. I won't name any of them as they're not public figures, but I will do a mini-fisk of their arguments:

I was disappointed by the actions of a few of our people in Iraq. They should have known better then to give our enemies any sort of propaganda weapon to use against us. But I am more ashamed of our media for helping our enemies by distributing anti-American propaganda. A lot of these liberal media types seem to have no loyalty to America and no regard for doing what is in the best interest of our nation and our men and woman in the armed forces.

American soldiers tortured prisoners, but you're more ashamed of the American media for not keeping it a secret? And besides, how does reporting what actually happened qualify as "propaganda"? Next:

Bush disgraced himself and the United States. The president of the world's only superpower does not make apologies to the tin-pot dictator of a tiny Arab desert kingdom or to any other country. We are still waiting for apologies from anyone in the Muslim world for the murder of 3,000 Americans in the World Trade Center.

So the torture wasn't the problem, apologizing for the torture was. I see. And my personal favorite:

Who cares how Iraqi prisoners get treated? Have we all forgotten how these people treated America's people on 9/11? I say do whatever it takes to keep our guys safe over there, as well as our families safe here.

The Iraqis tortured in the Iraqi prison are responsible for 9/11? Or does "these people" mean something else? Say what?

As I've said before: I was for the war in Iraq and I still am. But come on- this sort of torture is beyond unacceptable, and our entire reason for being there is to free the Iraqis from savagery, not to engage in it ourselves. And even if the media has overplayed this story (and I don't believe they have), the media's handling isn't the story- the atrocities are.

Posted by Stephen Silver at May 8, 2004 07:05 PM
Comments

I don't think Taranto was tying the thing to the lack of ROTC on campus per say; rather he was trying to make a connection between the barring of ROTCs on campus and the previous idea he'd floated.

As for Chavez and the Post's letter writers....they're on their own with those theories.

Posted by: jaws at May 9, 2004 01:55 AM

You know, all the examples you gave of 'wacky' rightwinging blame still make a lot more sense than blaming Donald Rumsfeld.

Posted by: Karol at May 9, 2004 11:50 PM
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