Looks like Rumsfeld may be forced to fall on to his sword if the World Today on ABC is on the money. He faces the Inquiry today so it should be lively.
It is rather bemusing that the western press has whipped itself into a lather over the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners with no mention whatsoever of:
1. why they are there in the first place. Are those being humiliated litterers, fine evaders or perhaps bombers of innocent women and children, 2. why are they being punished? Smoking in their cells, not being in bed at lights out perhaps? In one of the earlier instances to light the prisoners had severely beaten a fellow inmate who had co-operated with US authorities. We don't know, but rest assured these guys aren't fare evaders, 3. most interestingly, there have been a plethora of bombings over the past few days by homicide bombers, randomly killing anyone nearby - yet these stories are relegated to the inside pages while the press salivates and gnashes its teeth over these "US atrocities".
Do people really think US interrogators are chatting with the likes of Hambali, Saddam et al over cups of tea to find out what they know? Let me ask this - if the US had in custody someone who was likely to know the whereabouts of bin Laden and his stooges but refused to talk then who would condone them using any means at their disposal to extract information from them? Pretty easy quiz I would have thought. Fingernails littering the floor....... Sometimes the end DOES justify the means, and no more so than in wartime. For one side to fight a war with one hand tied behind its back is madness.
Back to the Iraqis - the orders appear to have been to "soften them up" for interrogation. Iraqis have shown themselves to be very tough cookies. I don't know that shouting at them very sternly would be too successful, quite frankly. Without condoning the US actions, I am mature enough to know that what came to light happens every day in every conflict everywhere. It pales into insignificance eg beside images of US soldiers being beheaded or hung from bridges, or innocent Japanese, Italian, US etc etc civilians being kidnapped and threatened with death. What is different here is that the jail incidents came to light so let's not get too excited about it, and remember that dismembering bodies, bombing school buses, innocent civilians and anyone advocating freedom for the populace is a tad worse.
This is a serious business in Iraq. There is no First and Second - only a Winner and a Loser. If the US loses, the Iraqi people lose - remember that. They would quickly become an Islamic state, a "Taliban" style state, or complete anarchists. There aren't any good visionary guys on the other side that I've seen who are about to make the average Iraqis lot in life any better.
