Newsweek II

Most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.

I suppose I would be remiss if I didn't comment on this report from the NY Times that was published today.

Read it if you don't already know about how -prisoners- in custody are treated. If you already know, I suggest just skipping the story because it may make you despair for the humanity of our world.

I'll just throw out some comments, that I think should be common sense, but apparently are not.

First, the White House is ultimately responsible, but there is no accountability there. If you are very low in rank, you go to jail. If you are very high in rank, you get promoted. If you write memos justifying torture and doing away with Geneva Conventions, you become the Attorney General of the United States.

The administration will deflect all responsibility. Unlike in in the UK where you hear Blair take responsibility for errors, Dear Leader cannot possibly be responsible for anything. He's like the Pope - infallible.

The administration will blame Newsweek, and claim that journalists are responsible for much of the anti-American sentiments in the world. Now a vast majority of the Muslim populations actually despises America, instead of wanting to be like us. The fact is, what Newsweek reported (possibly in error) is far less egregious than what the actual truth is, and is far milder than what the Times story details today.

If the Times story gets circulated, you'll see far more riots then what the Newsweek story supposedly caused.

It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better...

Finally.. I would just say that there are some really sick people in the world. Call them psychopaths, or sociopaths, or whatever you want to call them. They actually like hurting people.

And there are millions upon millions of American's that don't give a fuck.

Which is more disturbing - the guard that tortures and kills a person in custody, or the American that doesn't give a shit?

So it's a mean world out there, right? I guess those of us that read my blog are lucky we're not living in a shit storm right now. But - at least try to give a damn about what's going on, okay? Even if you don't do anything about it, at least think about it a little bit.

The saddest part of the state of affairs today is that it's not what this country is supposed to be about. Regardless of the circumstances, we don't torture and kill prisoners. We simply do not do that, and if you think we should, I think maybe you'd be happier living in a country that actually does that as a matter of policy.

What our actions in the world today should be is not about violence. It has got to be about changing a way of thinking. I've said it more times than I can count. It is not a zero sum game. If you kill one more Muslim, and call him a terrorist, that does not create one less Muslim terrorist.

George Bush represents the anti-American. He represents the culture of death and destruction. He simply makes the world a more dangerous place by inflaming anti-American hatred world wide.

We had a great opportunity to be the model of what the world should be, and George Bush pissed it all away.

The next time Scott McClellen stands before a press conference and asks Newsweek to "do more", I suggest a reporter ask him if the true problem may not be the media, but the fact that torture and killing of prisoners is commonplace.

And maybe.. just maybe.. you should be concerned.. because you might get chained to a ceiling for days on end, and you might be dead for hours before anybody notices, and you just might be innocent.