Koran Abuses, Amnesty International and Iraqi insurgency

Wow, it's fun watching the spin pro-Administration sites are putting on the recent Pentagon report detailing abuses of the Koran.

The argument I hear most often is "Well, a lot of the cases deal with the prisoners doing it themselves". Do we REALLY want to put ourselves in the position of measuring our behavior against that of the bad apples?

Put another way, suppose a few of the prisoners were cutting off each others' fingers. Would it then be legitimate to say "Well, they're doing it to each other, so what if we cut off a few fingers as well?" We hold ourselves to a higher standard. We HAVE to, or else there's no justification for our being any more qualified to determine "correct" behavior than they, and without that, we can't justify this whole exercise in nation building.

On another note, can someone tell me where (other than "Spin Ally") there's any justification for claiming the insurgency is on it's last legs, or that we're winning? The number of attacks, the number of deaths, they've remained constant or even risen in recent months, and yet our illustrious VP tells us that the insurgency is in its last throes. And by the way, even in the midst of that, he hedged his bets, saying that it would be over soon, defined as "by the time this administration is out of office". That's not soon. That gives them over three more years, as much time as has passed since we went into Iraq in the first place.

I've seen no serious, credible reports from any sources not directly linked to the Administration that the insurgency is anything but going strong. There may be a disagreement about whether we should be there, but at LEAST be honest. But then, that's been a problem with this Administration with regard to this war from the very start, hasn't it. (And by "this war" I don't mean the war on terror, which Iraq is not part of in my opinion. I mean the war in Iraq, which I still maintain is DISTRACTING us from the war on terror. Or did I miss something, and bin Ladin is now in custody?)

Oh, and while I'm at it, why is it that Amnesty International is a fine, reliable source when the Administration wants to quote them to justify taking action in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria or any of a number of other places, but when the worm turns suddenly we "don't really take them seriously"? That's absurd. Either they've never been a reliable source, in which case one MORE of the justifications for this war in Iraq has just been yanked from under the President's feet, or else they've always been what most believe them to be, an honest human rights group, in which case perhaps the American public should sit up and wonder just what's being done in our names that would raise the hackles of that group.

People are complaining that we're being held to a higher standard, but again, we SHOULD be. We behave as though we believe we're the shining beacon, the model of behavior to which all countries should cleave, and the ultimate authority in correction and punishment when one of the "little ones" misbehaves.

Parents are (and should be) held to a much higher standard of behavior than small children. Policemen are (or should be) held to a higher standard of behavior than ordinary citizens. If we want to model ourselves as the world's ideal, then damn straight we should be held to a higher standard.

Copyright(c) June 6, 2005 by Liam Johnson. http://www.liamjohnson.net