Thanks, George Bush And Joe Lieberman

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Thanks, George Bush And Joe Lieberman
By SusanUnPC, Author, No Quarter
Monday, 10 July 2006 at 12:22

Iraq is madness. In the thread below, we began discussing the NYT story, "Baghdad Erupts in Mob Violence," which also features an unforgettable, searing image of the raped and murdered 14-year-old Iraqi GIRL (not woman, as if that much-discussed debate point mattered). Now this from the LA Times today, described by a diarist at Daily Kos:

"Confidential documents that were obtained by the LA Times and were authenticated by current and former police officials show details of widespread corruption, rape of female prisoners, bribery, kidnapping, forgery of passports and many other lovely acts. The documents show how vast the problems are within the Iraqi Interior Ministry over the past few years."
Our primary question: What can we do?

The diarist quotes from the LA Times story:

Brutality and corruption are rampant in Iraq’s police force, with abuses including the rape of female prisoners, the release of terrorism suspects in exchange for bribes, assassinations of police officers and participation in insurgent bombings.

— -snip---

Officers also have beaten prisoners to death, been involved in kidnapping rings, sold thousands of stolen and forged Iraqi passports and passed along vital information to insurgents, the Iraqi documents allege.

"Beating prisoners to death. Kidnapping rings. Passing ’vital’ information to insurgents. Raping female prisoners. Assassinations of other police officers. Releasing terrorism suspects for bribes," the diarist summarizes.

What in the hell do we — as citizens of the country responsible for this madness — do?

Oh, and the reason for the title of my post today? It comes from McJoan’s superb line-up of three key quotes last night — in "America’s ’Good Plan’ for Iraq" — that lay open the LIES that both George Bush and Joe Lieberman continually tell about Iraq. Joan begins with this quote:

President George W. Bush in December 7, 2005:

One of those who has seen that progress is Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman. Senator Lieberman has traveled to Iraq four times in the past 17 months, and the article he wrote when he returned from his most recent trip provides a clear description of the situation on the ground. Here’s what Senator Lieberman wrote — Senator Lieberman wrote about the Iraq he saw: "Progress is visible and practical. There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraq hands than before." ... Read all of McJoan’s front-page story.

Yeah, David Brooks. Democratic bloggers are subjecting kindly Joe Lieberman to an unfair "Liberal Inquisition." Bunch of loud-mouthed, foul-tongued meanies, we are. Oh wait. Mr. Brooks, check the latest headlines on your employer’s Web site, posted on the heels of last night’s terrible story:

Blast Kills 10 as Violence Flares in Baghdad

After one of the worst weekends of violence in weeks, a bomb killed 10 people and wounded at least 49 in a Shiite section of Baghdad ...

And MSNBC just aired breaking news, too new to be linked just yet at the NYT: The military has released the names of the other soldiers charged in the murder and rape of the Iraqi girl, and the murder of her family.

Mr. Brooks, we never wanted this madness to begin with. Most reasonable Democrats, like me, have somewhat forgiven the senators who voted for the authorization to go to war, even though at the time it was plain as day that Bush was hellbent on war, no matter what, and they were idiots for not seeing that.

But Joe Lieberman is a different case: Lieberman carried, and continues to carry, water for George Bush, and that is morally and politically repugnant to us. Lieberman’s chief and fault-riddled stand is that there is progress in Iraq, which is probably true in some specific respects, but not overall, particularly with a government that is stuck inside the Green Zone and unable to control, let alone govern, the country. And whatever progress made is superficial and, quite probably, a classic case of lying with statistics. We can cite numbers for the Iraqi police and soldiers trained, but look to the LA Times today for the real story of the immense corruption and cruelty of how they operate.

Note to the NYT: Kirk Semple’s story last night says that the violence "threatened to expand into civil war." Patrick Lang has long said, with considerable authority, that Iraq is already beset by a civil war. I don’t quite understand why all the media (not just the NYT) dance around the term, except to avoid an explosive retort from the White House and Pentagon.

Back to my earlier question: What can we do? One thing is to speak truth to power, including the Bush-kissing Joe Lieberman. I watched the debate last week (aired on C-Span and MSNBC) between a uppity, hostile Joe Lieberman and his Democratic challenger Ned Lamont and was stunned by how ENTITLED Lieberman came across. As if no other Democrat dare challenge HIM. Then there’s his already-announced abdication of his own party should he lose the primary, with his plans to run as an independent.

Head’s up to the Democratic party establishment: With friends like Joe, ...