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May 07, 2004

Red Cross May Crucify Bush

The radioactive issue in the whole Iraq torture story is that the International Red Cross has known about the torture for most of the last year and informed top level members of the Bush command of the problem. And they did little to stop it.

And unlike Rumsfeld's contention, the practices were de facto condoned by the Coalition command:

The February report, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, presents a portrait of prisoner treatment in Iraq that is at odds with statements by administration officials that abuse wasn't condoned by military commanders and was limited to a handful of low-ranking soldiers.

Instead, the report says, information gathered by the ICRC "suggested the use of ill-treatment against persons deprived of their liberty went beyond exceptional cases and might be considered a practice tolerated by" coalition forces.

This is the context for the coming debate over whether the torture was a few "bad seeds" or was part of a general greenlighting by top officials that "anything goes" for getting information and "winning the war."

If the latter is the case-- and it looks like it is-- Rumsfeld should resign tomorrow and Bush should be tossed out by the voters in November.

Posted by Nathan at May 7, 2004 07:03 PM