Does the Right Remember Abu Ghraib?

[rodeodance]

"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48618-2005Jan4.html?referrer=email"

Does the Right Remember Abu Ghraib?

By Anne Applebaum

Wednesday, January 5, 2005; Page A17


During the past eight months there have been many news cycles, many front-page stories, many events. There have been elections. There have been hurricanes and tidal waves. Nevertheless, in the grand scheme of things, eight months is not a very long time. In most of the world, something that happened eight months ago is considered "recent." In Washington, however, it seems that eight months ago is considered "ancient." How else to explain the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to the post of attorney general of the United States?

Or, more to the point: How else to explain the widespread assumption that Gonzales -- who commissioned the "torture memo" of August 2002, following a meeting in his office -- will be decisively confirmed? After all, eight months ago, much of the country -- and much of the Republican Party -- was gripped by horror and embarrassment after the publication of photographs from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Those photographs haven't gone away: As I write this, I need only click on my computer's Internet Explorer icon and there is Lynndie England, grinning and giving a thumbs-up behind a pile of naked men.

If the pictures haven't gone away, the value system that led to Abu Ghraib hasn't gone away either. Last month -- really recently -- lawsuits filed by American human rights groups forced the government to release thousands of pages of documents showing that the abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Naval Base long preceded the Abu Ghraib photographs, and that abuse has continued since then too. U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have, according to the administration's own records and my colleagues' reporting, used beatings, suffocation, sleep deprivation, electric shocks and dogs during interrogations. They probably still do.

......And those are only a few senators. In fact, anyone who has ever wanted the United States to play a role in promoting and supporting democracy and human rights around the world -- and this includes a wide swath of the conservative movement -- ought to oppose the appointment of Alberto Gonzales, if only on the grounds that he is associated with bad legal advice that has damaged our ability to do so. Just because the president can't remember how embarrassed we all were eight months ago doesn't mean the rest of Washington, and especially the rest of the president's party, need be gripped by amnesia as well. ......

[tk2kewl]

1. The right doesn't give a damn about Abu Ghraib...

other than the fact that the abuses became public. They believe we have the absolute right to torture anyone who they consider to be a terrorist. Evidence: Gonzales' advice to junior

[damntexdem]

2. Yes, they've constantly remembered it and tried to ...

bury any public memory about it.

They regard the rule of law as 'quaint' but are afraid that the public may not do so.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. "Abu what? That's the fella in charge of Syria, right?" -GWB

[Career Prole]

4. No...of course they don't. We can thank the media

who went to extremes reporting Abu Ghraib as an isolated incident involving a handful of "bad seed" soldiers running wild in the face of all the evidence that the abuse was ongoing and widespread.
There are many nightmares which the corporate media are directly responsible for allowing to come to pass and Abu Ghraib is but one of them.
IMO, of course.

[bowens43]

5. Remember it?

They loved it. They laugh about it. They talk about other 'college pranks' that would be appropriate for use. I have yet to meet or speak to even one conservative who thinks that anything that happened at Abu Ghraib was wrong (other then photos being taken).

[krrywon]

6. If they don't remember

they'll be reminded at Gonzalez's hearing Thursday!

[mattclearing]

7. Of course they remember. A little hazing, is all it was. They cheered.

When the Bushtapo come for them, perhaps they will be more likely to object.

[Briar]

8. The right plugs into the mob demand for vengeance

They want more Abu Ghraibs, more Fallujahs, more opportunities to grind the faces of the "others" they hate and fear into mush.