Friday, April 30, 2004
Bush, One Year After 'Mission Accomplished'
Appearing today with Canadian PM Paul Martin the President defended his aircraft carrier speech from a year ago:
...As to the carrier speech, Bush said, "A year ago I did give the speech from the carrier saying we had achieved an important objective, accomplished a mission, which was the removal of Saddam Hussein."
"And as a result, there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq. As a result, a friend of terror has been removed and now sits in a jail," the president said...
Emphasis added because of recently discovered prisoner abuse in Iraq by American soldiers:
"This is the straw that broke the camel's back for America," said Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. "The liberators are worse than the dictators."
"...They have not just lost the hearts and minds of Iraqis but all the Third World and the Arab countries," he told Reuters.
The CBS News program "60 Minutes II" on Wednesday broadcast photos taken at the Abu Ghraib prison late last year showing American troops abusing some Iraqis held at what was once a notorious center of torture and executions under toppled President Saddam Hussein.
The pictures showed U.S. troops smiling, posing, laughing or giving the thumbs-up sign as naked, male Iraqi prisoners were stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts with one another...
Pictures of the abuse here. Not for the faint of heart.
It's actions like this that will make an already arduous task in Iraq nearly impossible.
| Permalink Here
Appearing today with Canadian PM Paul Martin the President defended his aircraft carrier speech from a year ago:
...As to the carrier speech, Bush said, "A year ago I did give the speech from the carrier saying we had achieved an important objective, accomplished a mission, which was the removal of Saddam Hussein."
"And as a result, there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq. As a result, a friend of terror has been removed and now sits in a jail," the president said...
Emphasis added because of recently discovered prisoner abuse in Iraq by American soldiers:
"This is the straw that broke the camel's back for America," said Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. "The liberators are worse than the dictators."
"...They have not just lost the hearts and minds of Iraqis but all the Third World and the Arab countries," he told Reuters.
The CBS News program "60 Minutes II" on Wednesday broadcast photos taken at the Abu Ghraib prison late last year showing American troops abusing some Iraqis held at what was once a notorious center of torture and executions under toppled President Saddam Hussein.
The pictures showed U.S. troops smiling, posing, laughing or giving the thumbs-up sign as naked, male Iraqi prisoners were stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts with one another...
Pictures of the abuse here. Not for the faint of heart.
It's actions like this that will make an already arduous task in Iraq nearly impossible.
| Permalink Here
