well, he did it. at least to the king of jordan, and then told the press about it second hand. i'm still waiting for heads to roll. (scott mcclellan said today that the president "absolutely" wants rumsfeld to stay in the cabinet)
i'm not trying to be vindictive here, but the president has to do something to show he's serious right now. remember in march 2003 when americans were captured and their images were broadcast to the world? people all over the country called the images "chilling" and "disturbing." yet all they showed were a bunch of scared looking soldiers. they all had their clothes on and there was no sign of mistreatment. yet the country was outraged over the broadcast of the images. now can you imagine how this country would have reacted if the american POWs were shown naked, with wires attached to their bodies, in sexual positions, and with laughing iraqis surrounding them giving the "thumbs-up" sign? that would have gone way beyond outrage. the entire country would have flipped out, there is simply no telling the amount of rage that would inspire.
aside from the justifiable moral outrage, i still don't know if the administration fully realizes just how potentially damaging this is. from now on, no iraqi is going to go peacefully to questioning when he or she is stopped by american forces. their families won't cooperate either. if american troops show up at a someone's house, the occupants and all of their neighbors are going to think the americans are coming to sexually abuse them. it's only going to get worse too. there are more photos than the ones that have been broadcast before today. there's apparently even a videotape. more and more images are going to leak out, giving the impression that the abuse is ongoing. and the families of people who are held by american forces outside iraq are going to start asking questions too.
as anyone who reads this site knows, i think the entire iraqi invasion is a tragic blunder. i don't think we should be there at all. but the human cost of our occupation is going to get much worse unless the president does something right away. is this guy capable of any real leadership?
