I had assumed that the conservative response to the Iraq prison torture mess was going to boil down to something like: "Torture isn't so bad! In fact it's expected, nay, required in a war of this magnitude!"
I was totally wrong; the token response is instead to blame the press for releasing the photos of the abuse. HAH! Forget about the abuse, it's revealing the abuse that's really causing problems!
But wait a second -- isn't it the responsibility of the press to publicize exactly this kind of thing -- namely, governmental abuses? If the press had failed to publish those photos, it would have been just that -- a failure. Sure, non-photo coverage is powerful too, but the term "photojournalism" exists for a reason, and those pictures were news.
So if you're thinking the press is to blame for people getting their heads cut off, consider this: our government does what it does knowing that, if the press finds out, so will we. It is not the responsibility of our newspapers to censor themselves in the hopes of saving lives; it is the responsibility of our leaders to do the right thing or be held accountable.
Word.
Bravo - well said!
I really agree Jonah on this one. Who decides what the press can self-censure? Why don't we see images of people jumping out of the towers in NYC? Why not show Berg's full video? Because the press decides what it is that we can handle and can't handle. (I won't get into the ideological leanings here, either.) Sure, these photos are extremely newsworthy but let's be consistent. I think that's what Goldberg is getting at.
Just remember who started this investigation; it wasn't CBS, it wasn't the media. It was the Army. The system is working...there was reported problems, an investigation was conducted. Public hearings were held. The guilty will be punished. And our leaders are doing the right thing. Unlike societies in the Middle East, it's pretty clear that leaders in the US are held accountable for their actions.
Why don't we see images of people jumping out of the towers in NYC? Why not show Berg's full video? Because the press decides what it is that we can handle and can't handle. (I won't get into the ideological leanings here, either.) Sure, these photos are extremely newsworthy but let's be consistent.
Well, think about the comparison you're making here.
1,) We did see people jump out of the towers, of course. More important to my argument: we've seen tons of images of the burning/collapsing towers.
2.) We didn't see the actual chopping off of the head, but we saw the video right up to that point.
So which would be more consistent: A.) not showing the photos at all, or B.) showing the photos and blurring out the genitals?
But your next argument was way worse. You said:
The system is working...there was reported problems, an investigation was conducted. Public hearings were held. The guilty will be punished. And our leaders are doing the right thing. Unlike societies in the Middle East, it's pretty clear that leaders in the US are held accountable for their actions.
But in the US, elected leaders are only held accountable by the voting public. If our leaders' indescretions and atrocities are kept hidden from us, we can't hold them accountable by voting for the opposition. At best, the peons who carried out the torture would have been punished -- but what about punishing the system that allowed the torture to happen? It's not like Rummy was going to sanction himself.
I got to see the full video with the head being chopped off and the guy holding the severed head up. Not something anyone needs to see.
BTW, the guilty will not be punished. In cases like this they never will because the guilty are the powerful people. In this world, the powerful does not get punished by the masses. Only individuals that are more powerful can punish the powerful (Bush vs. Saddam is a good example). Since the only one more powerful than Rumy is Bush. I think everyone will be just fine. Of course except the poor pawns.
They may have showed them at the time, but I haven't seen a World Trade Center video, based on why we are fighting this war on terrorism, in about 2 years. Bush used one image in a commercial and all the liberal activists went crazy. Why? Because it reminds Americans why we are fighting terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On the prison issue, I think we'll have to agree to disagree here; I don't believe this is a systemic problem, but rather a means for many liberals to attack the US Military over one incident. I personally don't believe the SecDef sanctioned this type of interrogation method. I believe we're dealing with 19-23 year olds who were not properly supervised in this prison. The military officers and NCOs in charge will be punished. End of story.
Voters will get their chance in November to decide if they want to fire Bush and replace him with Kerry.
If I had seen the video, I probably would have responded by putting my hand through the TV screen. It enrages me that human beings would do this to someone else. It further pushes me to believe what we are doing is the right thing and the ultimate defeat of the Islam-o-fascists is something all countries should strive for.