Rule of law

I find it ironic that Bush is standing up, patting Rumsfeld on the back and congratulating him on his job well done in the war against terror. Sure Bush may have duped some of a gullible American public into believing invading Iraq had something to do with the war on terror with logic like "well the 9/11 hijackers came from there, so of course our country should go kick their countries ass..." But the majority of right thinking, rational human beings in this country still know that invading Iraq had nothing to do with the war on terror. It was just a diversion to take our mind of how pathetically little progress that "war" was making, just like the "war on drugs".

Meanwhile Bush is also trumpeting how the perpetrators of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse will be punished according to rule of law. That's all well and good, but who's rule? If it was common US civil law they would all be doing years of prison time, if its pre-Bush invasion Iraqi law civil law then who knows - does stoning or some other revenge against them apply? However when its US military law which apparently conveniently applies... well they may just lose some pay, get demoted, dishonorable discharge, or even just suffer an administrative discipline. I believe the worst they can get for actual unlawful killing is about a one year stretch in the brig. Is there any wonder why Bush is afraid to submit US forces to international rule of law that he is so happy to subject other "evil-doers" to?

Fortunately for us we can still rely on the stupidity of the few who feel inclined to document their own crimes, and the honorable few who feel inclined to speak out and expose them. But its a tough fight all the way to the top to get anyone to do anything about it. When Iraqis complained of abuse at Abu Ghraib and even created art to document their experience, no one listened. Its clear that for many in the US administration this whole affair is just an inconvenient irritation that never should have made it into the public eye and should be swept under the carpet as quickly as possible:

"We're functioning in a (with peacetime constraints) wartime situation, in the Information Age, where people are running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media...

"Unbelievable photographs"? Who the heck made that comment? Well our own Rumsfeld of course. As the Tin Man told me:

Isn't that an amazing quote?? Rumsfeld is sorry that they got caught and that they don't have unlimited power. That's all he's sorry about. And his choice of adjectives is interesting, "unbelievable". Sounds like he'd love to court martial for the guy who slipped the disc to the media.

For those detractors like Rumsfeld who poo-poo the whole affair by saying its no worse than frat-house hazing rituals, or as Limbaugh said "fun, stress relief" (thank you again Tin Man), well wasn't that exactly the point I made in What price the American dream?. When fully integrated with our vision of how society should be, Iraqis will have to tolerate our US standards of what is acceptable levels of crime, acceptable levels of unreported abuse in our institutions (prisons, homes, police, military), acceptable "fun", and acceptable corruption (Enron, Global Crossing, ...) and whatever else is just an acceptable price you pay for the current Bush v2.0 of "The American Dream". That is: shopping, guns and cheap oil for all, except all those pesky evil-doers and dissenters who need to be sent to the Guantanamo Gulag.