Truly Sorry

[igloo]

Truly Sorry

Thursday, May 06, 2004

By Neil Cavuto

A lot of people think President Bush should apologize for this whole Iraqi prisoner mess.

Funny, but I don't remember hearing anyone say the deviants who strung up those four American contractors in Fallujah (search) should apologize.

Or for that U.S. military convoy that was blown to bits checking out a supposedly sacred mosque. No one's apologizing to them.

Or to the families of those earliest American prisoners of the war (search), two of whom were butchered and hacked in captivity. No apologies there.

Or to all those Palestinians I remember dancing in the streets on September 11, after 3,000 innocents were senselessly slaughtered here. No apologies asked for. No apologies given.

Or to those scores of United Nations workers injured and killed in a Baghdad terrorist attack for simply trying to keep the peace. No apologies from those who couldn't keep the slightest hint of humanity.

Or Aban Elias (search), the American engineer taken hostage on Thursday. Where are the "we're sorries" for him?

It is not surprising that we take the actions of a few to make a grander, false point about the many. Why should it be surprising that the world would prefer to trump pictures of American soldiers abusing prisoners over American soldiers helping kids and curing the sick?

No, it's far easier to say "screw you," than simply "thank you."

There is much we do wrong in this country. But at least we have the guts to admit it. We deal with it and correct it. It's a shame that so many outside this country haven't the guts to acknowledge it. Or even critics in this country, who haven't the decency to withhold sweeping judgment on it.

And that's sorry, indeed.

[mursa]

its pathetic how your trying to excuse the UNEXCUSABLE .

[mursa]

its pathetic how your trying to excuse the UNEXCUSABLE .

[BRIANC1046]

today, he basically did apologize.. and he should.. It doesn't matter what any other country did.. We are America.. and we set an example for the rest of the world..

No excuses for what happened.. And for you justifying such actions

[siceone]

Damn right w're supposed to be better than everyone else... you tell them bdanto

[igloo]

today, he basically did apologize.. and he should.. It doesn't matter what any other country did.. We are America.. and we set an example for the rest of the world..

No excuses for what happened.. And for you justifying such actions

I an not justifying anything douchebag. I think you are seriously missing the point of Cavuto's rant.

[igloo]

its pathetic how your trying to excuse the UNEXCUSABLE .

No one is trying to make an excuse for anyone or anything jerkoff...

[igloo]

May 07, 2004, 9:48 a.m.

Keeping the Promise

Let’s keep our eyes on the prize.

By Mahdi al-Bassam

Over the past week, the world has seen images of atrocious prisoner abuse in Iraq. There was outrage in Western Europe and the Arab world; France, Russia, and secular Arabs were particularly vocal in their condemnation of America. There were murmurs too from the United Nations.

Were it not for their hypocrisy, these condemnations would be quite stirring. But just a decade or two ago, the same groups stood by while hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were dumped into mass graves. They even supplied Saddam with lethal chemicals subsequently used against the local population. Where were those great humanitarian voices when Saddam was carrying out his atrocities?

The same Arabs and Muslims who today decry the behavior of a few American servicemen for years turned a blind eye to the mass murder, torture, and gassing of their fellow Muslims. They watched — and condemned America for — the suffering of the Iraqi people, all the while supporting the torturer himself and literally stealing food and medicine from the mouths of starving men, women, and children.

This hypocrisy speaks volumes about the people who rejected the liberation of Iraq for there own greed. Saddam's orphans are guilty participants in his most serious crimes.

If we are to ask for an apology on behalf of the Iraqi people, then we must begin closer to the source of their agony. That means getting at the underlying reasons for why the Coalition is in Iraq today and what can be done to keep the American promise of a democratic Iraq. We must find out why these governments, organizations, and individuals so vehemently opposed helping the oppressed Iraqis.

Americans will certainly look deeper into what happened and why. America must find a new level of honesty in its introspection. We must get the facts straight before we can recommend a solution; Bush has promised as much. The facts will lead us to those who committed and facilitated the torture. It is wrong to prematurely blame Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for what we see on television, and it is absurd to reach a conclusion before all the facts are out. The battle against terror demands that we correct our errors and continue moving ahead.

As for the Iraqi people, this will be one more step toward obtaining a sovereign democratic state. It would be just for them to be included in the process of decision-making regarding this atrocity. The greatest justice would be for the Iraqi people to come out of this ordeal with a truly democratic secular state.

Bush, members of his cabinet, and the American people must hold true to the promise they made to the Iraqi people of freedom, democracy, and the chance for a better life. The president should make the bureaucracy implement his vision, and this atrocity should be turned to further strengthen the growing bond between the American and Iraqi people in their joint aspirations for peace and democracy.

— Dr. Mahdi al-Bassam, a physician in Texas, is a founding member of the Iraqi National Congress.

[igloo]

Keeping The Enemy In Perspective

David Limbaugh (archive)

May 7, 2004 | Print | Send

Pictures, stories and commentaries about American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners are dominating the news. They're everywhere. I agree this regrettable incident must be addressed, but let's not lose our heads over it.

I understand the outrage. We must never condone this kind of behavior by our soldiers, even against human beings who have no respect for human life, know no bounds of decency and would gladly brutalize our soldiers in ways that would make our soldiers' mistreatment of them look like child's play. We must hold ourselves to a higher standard.

Perhaps we should apologize to the civilized world and to the Iraqi people, but I'm not so anxious to apologize to the "victims" themselves, who would probably have enjoyed eating our intestines for lunch well before the incident.

But let's not fool ourselves into believing that our genuine efforts to make amends will mollify the Arab street or foreign nations predisposed to think the worst of us. Surely we don’t think for a second that the perversely biased Arab media outlet Aljazeera, for example, will be impressed by our contrition.

Accountability means that we accept responsibility, mete out swift and sure justice to the perpetrators and take corrective measures to prevent this kind of thing from occurring again. It does not mean that we beat ourselves up to the point of questioning the righteousness or justice of our cause.

This incident is the exception involving a very small fraction of soldiers. They do not represent the average soldier, who is honorable and puts his life on the line every day to protect American security and freedom and establish Iraqi self-rule. Let's not paint our entire armed forces, the Defense Department, the Bush Administration and the United States itself with a wide brush of condemnation.

Our brass never condones this type of behavior. We have conducted this war with serious restraint and utmost humanity. This episode is the last thing the Bush Administration wanted to happen because it undermines troop and civilian morale.

Let's have some perspective here. While our handful of abusive troops represent the exception, the same is not true of our enemy, whose true nature we dare not forget. The ordinary enemy combatant is an unrepentant murderer.

The enemy and his sympathizers rejoiced as they mutilated our people and dragged them through the streets. Sex-related humiliation is one thing, but how about the deliberate killing of innocent women and children as a theological obsession?

Where's the outrage for the actions against us? Where are the condemnations? Where are the apologies?

And speaking of the enemy, some choose to believe that the hostilities in Iraq are wholly unrelated to the War on Terror. But the identity and character of the enemy we are fighting there conclusively proves otherwise. To see that the action in Iraq is part of the war on terror we need only observe the cause uniting the enemy.

The enemy -- terrorists, thugs and anarchists, local and international -- is doing everything it can to obstruct self-rule for the Iraqis. We are not at war with the Iraqi people or the Iraqi soldiers helping us to defend the Iraqi people. The ongoing fighting in Iraq isn't between the United States and Iraq, but the United States and Iraq against the terrorists.

Sadly some of the president's critics and political opponents are beginning to exploit this, energetically wringing their hands and resurrecting talk of the ugly American -- though they are Americans themselves. Liberal columnists are using this isolated case to validate their preformed opinion that our entire war effort has been mismanaged and a failure.

Well, I'm not willing to concede that everything has gone bad for us in Iraq or that we are guilty of poor planning because we didn't accurately predict every terrorist strike against our troops. Do the critics really believe it's possible to fight a casualty-free war, especially against an enemy that has less respect for the rules of war than it does for life itself?

I just don't understand the logic behind allegations that we are bungling the war because we sustain casualties or because a few of our soldiers get out of line. How easy it is for the armchair quarterbacks to condemn our whole military operation every time we experience setbacks while fighting an unpredictable urban war against an uncivilized, brutal, inhumane and evil enemy.

This is war. Let's quit pretending it's some kind of pristine chess match.

[BRIANC1046]

Keeping The Enemy In Perspective

David Limbaugh (archive)

May 7, 2004 | Print | Send

Pictures, stories and commentaries about American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners are dominating the news. They're everywhere. I agree this regrettable incident must be addressed, but let's not lose our heads over it.

I understand the outrage. We must never condone this kind of behavior by our soldiers, even against human beings who have no respect for human life, know no bounds of decency and would gladly brutalize our soldiers in ways that would make our soldiers' mistreatment of them look like child's play. We must hold ourselves to a higher standard.

Perhaps we should apologize to the civilized world and to the Iraqi people, but I'm not so anxious to apologize to the "victims" themselves, who would probably have enjoyed eating our intestines for lunch well before the incident.

But let's not fool ourselves into believing that our genuine efforts to make amends will mollify the Arab street or foreign nations predisposed to think the worst of us. Surely we don’t think for a second that the perversely biased Arab media outlet Aljazeera, for example, will be impressed by our contrition.

Accountability means that we accept responsibility, mete out swift and sure justice to the perpetrators and take corrective measures to prevent this kind of thing from occurring again. It does not mean that we beat ourselves up to the point of questioning the righteousness or justice of our cause.

This incident is the exception involving a very small fraction of soldiers. They do not represent the average soldier, who is honorable and puts his life on the line every day to protect American security and freedom and establish Iraqi self-rule. Let's not paint our entire armed forces, the Defense Department, the Bush Administration and the United States itself with a wide brush of condemnation.

Our brass never condones this type of behavior. We have conducted this war with serious restraint and utmost humanity. This episode is the last thing the Bush Administration wanted to happen because it undermines troop and civilian morale.

Let's have some perspective here. While our handful of abusive troops represent the exception, the same is not true of our enemy, whose true nature we dare not forget. The ordinary enemy combatant is an unrepentant murderer.

The enemy and his sympathizers rejoiced as they mutilated our people and dragged them through the streets. Sex-related humiliation is one thing, but how about the deliberate killing of innocent women and children as a theological obsession?

Where's the outrage for the actions against us? Where are the condemnations? Where are the apologies?

And speaking of the enemy, some choose to believe that the hostilities in Iraq are wholly unrelated to the War on Terror. But the identity and character of the enemy we are fighting there conclusively proves otherwise. To see that the action in Iraq is part of the war on terror we need only observe the cause uniting the enemy.

The enemy -- terrorists, thugs and anarchists, local and international -- is doing everything it can to obstruct self-rule for the Iraqis. We are not at war with the Iraqi people or the Iraqi soldiers helping us to defend the Iraqi people. The ongoing fighting in Iraq isn't between the United States and Iraq, but the United States and Iraq against the terrorists.

Sadly some of the president's critics and political opponents are beginning to exploit this, energetically wringing their hands and resurrecting talk of the ugly American -- though they are Americans themselves. Liberal columnists are using this isolated case to validate their preformed opinion that our entire war effort has been mismanaged and a failure.

Well, I'm not willing to concede that everything has gone bad for us in Iraq or that we are guilty of poor planning because we didn't accurately predict every terrorist strike against our troops. Do the critics really believe it's possible to fight a casualty-free war, especially against an enemy that has less respect for the rules of war than it does for life itself?

I just don't understand the logic behind allegations that we are bungling the war because we sustain casualties or because a few of our soldiers get out of line. How easy it is for the armchair quarterbacks to condemn our whole military operation every time we experience setbacks while fighting an unpredictable urban war against an uncivilized, brutal, inhumane and evil enemy.

This is war. Let's quit pretending it's some kind of pristine chess match.

I don't believe these idiot soldiers are a result of Bush or his administration.. and I do agree that they don't represent the average soldier.. but.. the rest of the article IS an attempt to justify their actions!

"This is war. Let's quit pretending it's some kind of pristine chess match." Yes, it is war.. War is bad.. And what those soldiers did was BAD! No Justifications... PERIOD! End of story..

[kramadas]

Limbaugh is a fuckin joke!