Diatribune

Amp'd Mobile - Lil' Bush "Hot Dog" Pilot

© copyright 2007 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org

The little man is on the move. Watch as George W. Bush begins and stays his course.

Meet Condie, Laura, Rummy, and Cheney. All can, did, and will help this "charmer" accomplish his mission.

Brownie makes an appearance; however, communication with him or her is merely condescending. Actually, every conversation little George W. engages in is pompous. Even when he speaks with his President, Dad, he scoffs and tells him . . . Well, you will see.

Stay tuned, George is coming to a television screen near you. Sadly, he can also be seen in the people's house, the White House, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, each and every day. As George Herbert Walker Bush said in this parody , "G-d help us all!"

"Lord have mercy," is the cry heard by many after this viewing. Some say there is no humor in this Comedy Central series. This President and his Administration have initiated, participated, and promoted reactive aggressions. Their idea of engagement is disgraceful, destructive, and will not deliver US from evil.

Many believe George W. Bush and his followers advocate torture. The President disputes this claim; however, in a brilliant article by Washington Post Op-Ed Columnist, Eugene Robinson, Torture is Torture, the Journalist proclaims . . .

Colin Powell's strongly worded rejection of torture should have embarrassed and chastened the White House, but this is a president who refuses to listen to critics of his "war on terrorism" -- even critics who helped design and lead it.

There should be no need to spell out the practical reasons against torture, but, for the record, they are legion. As Powell and others have argued, if the United States unilaterally reinterprets Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions to permit torture, potential adversaries in future conflicts will feel justified in doing the same thing. Does the president want some captured pilot to be subjected to the tortures applied in the CIA prisons?

And, as has been pointed out by experts, torture works -- far too well. Torture victims will tell what they know, and when their knowledge is exhausted, they will tell their torturers what they want to hear, even if they have to invent conspiracies. The president says that torturing al-Qaeda kingpins foiled serious plots against America, but how do we know those plots were real? How can we be sure that some of the detainees at Guantanamo aren't shopkeepers or taxi drivers who were snatched because Khalid Sheik Mohammed ran out of real terrorists to implicate and began naming acquaintances so he wouldn't get waterboarded again?

But we shouldn't have to talk about the practicalities of torture, because the real question is moral: What kind of nation are we? What kind of people are we?

Indeed, who or what might we be or imagine ourselves to be? Do we truly wish to sponsor any persecution? As a country founded on the principle that all men and women are created equal, the assertion that engaging in measures that are extremely exploitative, particularly those that cause physical or psychological damage of any sort, is apt, seems hypocritical.

Nevertheless, the White House continues to justify the practice. Apparently, this President believes that inflicting agony is "appropriate" if he or his co-commanders think a particular person is a threat. After all, George W. Bush maintains he needs to protect America and Americans. Others challenge this argument. Many believe the President has violated the rules of the Geneva Convention. They say current practices spit on the Constitution.

George W. Bush got what he wanted, ostensibly as a tool in his unfocused "war on terror": By signing into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Bush has made it legal for the C.I.A. to continue operating torture facilities in undisclosed, foreign countries, and for the writ of habeas corpus to be suspended for individuals who are designated "enemy combatants" against the U.S. (Designated by whom? That question remains unanswered.) The law also "establishes military tribunals that would allow some use of evidence obtained by coercion [that is, torture], but would give defendants access to classified evidence being used to convict them." (Reuters)

Even when this Administration declared itself honorable, and agreed to alter its agenda in accordance with the Supreme Court decision, questions remain.

When President Bush last week signed the bill outlawing the torture of detainees, he quietly reserved the right to bypass the law under his powers as commander in chief.

After approving the bill last Friday, Bush issued a ''signing statement" -- an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law -- declaring that he will view the interrogation limits in the context of his broader powers to protect national security. This means Bush believes he can waive the restrictions, the White House and legal specialists said.

Renouncing what is "right," correct or compassionate appears to be common these days or so some believe. Several viewers of the Comedy Central video cringe at what passes for humor. Even the seemingly innocuous comment has caused concern. Would any of us wish to laugh at the weight of another? Are there not weightier issues to discuss.

Might we chat about Lil' George and what he and his "cast" of characters do daily? These persons are directly and, or indirectly responsible for hundreds of thousands deaths. Innocents' lives and innocence is lost.

Little George invaded a country [or a cafeteria], changed the regime in an indefensible manner, all in the name of democracy. Hot dog! Citizens, those seeing photographs from Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, clamored then and now as they witness this mockery. "This war will not be fought in our names." Countrymen and cartoon viewers exclaim, 'This is no laughing matter.' Yet, here it is in cartoon form. George W. Bush at his finest or his worst. You decide.

The Humor. The Haughty. The Hurts . . .