In the introduction to his book War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, Chris Hedges explains that when the Senate and House voted to give the president the right to 'use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks," there was only one dissenting vote. This vote was from Barbara J. Lee, a Democrat from California. In defense of her vote, she explained that military action could not guarantee security for the country and pleaded that "as we act, let us not become the evil we deplore."
As Donald Rumsfield flew into Iraq today to give what appeared to be nothing more than two very expensive press conferences at Abu Ghraib prison, he talked about the abuses being a "body blow" to the US and for those in charge. He also pinpointed the fact that no one had tried to keep these abuses secret. This can be argued.
Meanwhile, lawmakers were privileged to view additional photos and video of the abuses and torture at Abu Ghraib. Ken Guggenheim of the AP reported that "House and Senate members saw photos and video Wednesday of Iraqi corpses, military dogs menacing cowering Iraqi prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose themselves and other sexual abuses. Some lawmakers said the pictures included forced homosexual sex..."
Guggenheim spoke with lawmakers about what they saw in the private screening. Here are a few comments:
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said, "It was significantly worse than anything that I had anticipated. Take the worst case and multiply it several times over." [snip]
"I saw cruel, sadistic torture," said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who added that some of the images were of male prisoners masturbating. She said she saw a man hitting himself against a wall as though to knock himself unconscious.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said he did not see acts of violence, but what appeared to be "results of acts of violence."
He said he saw people in body bags and a person with a face "virtually gone." He saw "people being stitched up above the eyebrow apparently unconscious."
Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., said, "There were people who were forced to have sex with each other."
Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said, "There were some pictures where it looked like a prisoner was sodomizing himself" with an object. He said blood was visible in the photograph.
Maureen Dowd believes that President Bush has his very own sex scandal on his hands because of this. In her New York Times article "Clash of Civilizations," printed today, she writes:
The administration's demented quest to conquer Arab hearts and minds has dissolved in a torrent of pornography denigrating other parts of the Arab anatomy. George Bush, who swept into office on a cloud of moral umbrage, now has his own sex scandal - one with far greater implications than titillating cigar jokes.
The Bush hawks, so fixated on making the Middle East look more like America, have made America look un-American. Should we really be reduced to defending ourselves by saying at least we don't behead people?
Gripped in a "I can't look at them - I've got to look at them" state of mind, lawmakers grimly filed into private screening rooms on the Hill to check out the 1,800 grotesque images of sex, humiliation and torture.
"They're disgusting," Senator Dianne Feinstein told me. "If somebody wanted to plan a clash of civilizations, this is how they'd do it. These pictures play into every stereotype of America that Arabs have: America as debauched, America as hypocrites.
"Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz act like they know all the answers, almost like a divine right," she said. "They don't have a divine right, and they are wrong."
House Majority Leader Tom Delay explained today that people are overreacting to these images and using it as a political tool. When we are at war, when we are the occupying force, and especially when we have promised freedom from tyranny and abuse, this is not overreacting. We are seeing the acts of evil that we deplore.
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