Don't call it torture. It's just a broomstick up the butt.

[Classical_Liberal]

Don't call it torture. It's just a broomstick up the butt.
Stuff Happens!
by Richard Goldstein
May 5th, 2004 6:00 PM


here Donald Rumsfeld was, fielding unfriendly fire on Tuesday over the military's torture of Iraqi prisoners. This time, his usual pose of barely concealed contempt seemed more like scarcely repressed rage. Every muscle in his body was tensed, and his shoulders looked like wire hangers were holding them up. It was Rummy's Strangelove-ian attempt to keep from shrugging.

Hey, the voice within him longed to say, those fuckers are lucky to have their fingernails. But Rummy is a master of extenuation. When Baghdad was looted while the U.S. army stood by, he uttered his most famous euphemism: "Stuff happens." Now he was saying something even more elliptical: Torture? Don't call it that.

The military report that describes forced masturbation and anal rape, threats of electrocution, and terror inflicted even unto death? Rummy hasn't finished reading it yet. The failure to inform Congress? He cited a memo issued last January that was as oblique as the fog of war itself. The probe of similar conduct at some 20 U.S.-run detention centers in Iraq and Afghanistan? The guilty will be punished, Rummy vowed—but surely not the intelligence officers who devised this "softening-up" process or the two private companies contracted to perform interrogations (because they are exempt from military law). Or the secretary of defense.

Two immigrants held in New York after 9-11 have filed a suit charging guards—supervised by intelligence officers—with subjecting them to casual violence and repeated body-cavity searches. (As in Iraq, large objects were allegedly inserted in the rectum.) But don't call it torture; why, that would be against U.S. law. The events at Abu Ghraib prison are an aberration, Rummy insisted, even though there are dark accusations of prisoner abuse by our British allies. For that matter, many of the 3,000 men detained since 9-11 were shipped to countries whose governments are known to practice interrogation methods anyone but Rummy would consider a bit much........

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0418/goldstein.php

[wtmusic]

1. Just don't call them POW's

and we can completely skirt Geneva 3.

Beyond absurd. Confirms my conviction that contracts, treaties, and resolutions are worthless. Might makes right.

[Hubert Flottz]

4. Yes we can break the Geneva Convintion but not NAFTA or.....

GATT! It just shows to go ya where the GOPers priorities Lie! Speaking of lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie lie and lie and lie and lie Bush is doing it about when he knew and what he knew AGAIN!

[Wonk]

2. It's only torture if

(posted by POAC in another thread, but worth a repost here, imho)

[Hubert Flottz]

3. I guess Rush did that at college!

And the Shrub when he was cheerleading may have crossed the line too! But HEY, that's what them GOPer boys do on campus I heard!

[physioex]

5. Remember whey you drove by Midas...

And it used be a lousy repair shop, and then one day a new sign proclaims "Under New Management". You go in there and see the same crappy employees doing the work and still get lousy service. I suppose it's like that at the torture chambers in Iraq now. In some insane way it might be funny.

[BonjourUSA]

6. Yes, and they must be very happy because the broomstick has no nail !

x(

[countmyvote4real]

7. I'm ultimately glad there was irony in your headline.

I was riled and ready to pounce, but thankfully we were pouncing on the same shit. We (USA) are fucked in the name of our own globalization. It's not the way to win and influence business partners. That was the situation two years ago and now this. We must dump this bastard, tyrant at any cost.