Global Comment

Where the world thinks out loud

Whatever Gets You Through the Night

By now, most people have seen the images of war-crimes that went on in the Abu Ghraib prison.

This is Rush Limbaugh’s response to the torture, as tactful and intelligent as always:

”This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we’re gonna ruin people’s lives over it, and we’re gonna hamper our military effort, and then we’re gonna really hammer ’em ’cause they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day, I’m talking about the people having a good time. These people … you ever heard of ’emotional release’? You ever heard of ‘need to blow some steam off?’ These people are the enemy .”

I’m convinced that people like Rush Limbaugh were born “in the wrong place, in the wrong time” (This phrase was Lynndie England’s family’s attempt to exonerate her…Lynndie is the cute lil’ girl from Backwoods USA you can see smokin’ a cigarette and giving a thumbs up next to a naked Iraqi). I think the Stone Age would have suited him much better.

Or maybe yet, dear Rush should have been born a pit-bull and spared the human race the embarrassment. Somebody then could put a muzzle and leash on him so he would have the pleasure to at least partially experience what the prisoners went through. Oh no, wait he’s American, we can’t do this to Americans, they’re human beings.

It would be foolish to pretend that abuse and torture are unique to this war and this country. They’re not. But what makes my blood reach its boiling point are the idiots that are trying to excuse and/or justify this sort of thing.

This perverse sense of entitlement, this outrage at the “unpatriotic” nature of this story, this attempt to go “but…but…”, this whole speech by that cow Terrie England, Lynndie’s mommy, who said that what Lynndie and her buddies did were “stupid, kid things-pranks.”

Imagine the outrage good ol’ Terrie would feel if Iraqi men took her daughter prisoner and pulled a “prank” or two of their own. She’d be screaming “nuke them!” from every channel in this country. She’d be waving her flag. She’d be sobbing to the cameras and to herself at night.

Guess what, Terrie, the people (that is, if your brain can ever conceive of Iraqis as people) in those photographs have mothers too. And if I was one of them, I’d be wanting to give you a good smack in the face (and nothing more, since I wouldn’t want to get down to the level of you and your spawn).

Seriously, is it that hard for Terrie England to admit that maybe her daughter made a teeny mistake? Is it impossible to ask herself what she might have done wrong as a mother to produce a child that participated in something like this? Is it such a challenge for those of us engaged, whether directly or indirectly, in this “holy war” to take a break from eating apple pie and screeching out the national anthem, and try to pinpoint the enemy within?

It would be unfair to disregard the fact that more people up the chain of command are being fried for this. Rumsfeld, should fry for this. But making Lynndie, Chip (another war criminal) and their buddies out to be the victims in all of this is missing the point. First and foremost, the victims are the men that were humiliated and tortured in a fashion that’s probably making Uncle Saddam quite proud at the moment.

It’s funny how the people that support this war change their logic when it suits them and manage to keep a straight face. In the beginning, when the peaceniks were trying to point out all the horrors associated with armed conflict they were brushed aside with a lofty: “Pah! This war is just! This war is glorious! We will ride in on white horses with halos shining over our heads and angels singing a cappella in the background and them infidels will lick our holy asses!”

Now that we’re seeing the cruelty that war can bring out in people, these fine folks are suddenly whining: “But war is hell! But war is hard! But these young men and women are under pressure! They need to relieve their stress somehow!”

I love it how certain people manage to stick by their principles in such troubled times.

Oh, and to the (most likely inbred) loser from Lynndie’s hometown, the one who said:

“We went there to help the jackasses and they started blowing us up. Lynndie didn’t kill ’em, she didn’t cut ’em up. She should have shot some of the suckers.”

Bitch, if you had kept your head out of your bum and used it to educate yourself about the world, you would have known by now that no rational government ever launches a full-out invasion of another country with the desire to help “the innocents.” That’s not how governments work. However, they do a very good job of brainwashing someone like you into believing whatever crap they spew your way, knowing that you’ll be willing to gobble up anything as long as it’s wrapped in stars and stripes.

I guess the biggest advantage to being this dumb is being able to sleep soundly at night, knowing that there is no way in hell that you’re guilty of anything but a little old fashioned hate.