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Tuesday, May 18, 2004

See America go.  Go, America, go!

From MSNBC, under the headline “Abuse scandal ‘terrible’ for U.S., Powell concedes”:

NEW YORK - Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal had had a “terrible impact” on Americaís international image as the Bush administration fought back against reports that it encouraged the abuses by emphasizing a get-tough approach to interrogations.

In a commencement address at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., Powell said the furor over U.S. abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib detention facility was a recurring theme at an international economic conference he attended in Jordan over the weekend.

He said he told the foreign leaders: “Watch America. Watch how we deal with this. Watch how America will do the right thing.”

Now, I don’t want to get on Colin Powell’s case here, since he’s clearly the only member of the Bush administration who gives a flying frog for the Geneva accords, and reportedly he objected strongly to Alberto Gonzales’s January 2002 memo to Bush (see previous post, below), which --ahem-- unambiguously “encouraged the abuses by emphasizing a get-tough approach to interrogations.” He’s also, so far, the only Administration official with the moral integrity-- or the cojones-- to admit that Abu Ghraib is a terrible international disaster for the U.S.

But what’s with the diction?

He said he told the foreign leaders: “Watch America. Watch how we deal with this. Watch how America will do the right thing.”

Do you suppose those were his exact words?  After all, he is quoting himself.  Or is this just what happens to reasonably intelligent people after more than three years of serving a President whose favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar?

Dear Mr. President, I went to another country.  In this country there were many foreign leaders.  Foreign leaders come from other countries too.  I told the foreign leaders:  Watch America.  Watch America do the right thing.  Do the right thing, America.

And yes, I’m confident we’ll do the right thing.  We’ll make sure those seven or twelve rogue soldiers take the fall.  Fall, soldiers, fall!

Posted by Michael on 05/18 at 08:10 AM
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