The recent rescue of 4 Iraqi hostages,
filmed on CNN, reminds us of one fact: There are many troops who are heroicly devoted to their duty despite the horrible odds facing them. Despite my recent condemnations of the torture policies and the breakdown of discipline in the military, it is important to recognize that the troops are human, just like anybody else. The unit which rescued the hostages in Karabila, near the border with Syria, is doing an outstanding job in Iraq, just like many other units are.
But two wrongs do not make a right. The administration's torture policies are not absolved just because CNN,
one of its enablers, shows the troops in a favorable light right in the middle of the Downing Street Memo breaking out over the mainstream media. At around 11:30 PM Central Time, there are now over 2,300 pieces on Google matching
"Downing Street Memo" and another 1,000 matching
"Downing Street Minutes." These figures are both 200 higher than 7:00 PM stats. And CNN, as of 11:30 PM, has nothing on the Downing Street Minutes.
CNN is one of the administration's biggest war cheerleaders; their co-founder said it was OK for the Pentagon to lie, and they lie themselves; they boasted as late as January 2005 of being America's most-watched news network despite being outrated by FOX.
And for people who defend the administration's torture policies based on the scars displayed by the rescued hostages: Our people, at Guantanamo, did the exact same stuff that these "terrorists" did, as well as pee on Korans and flush them down toilets. We beat prisoners, threw hoods over them, blared loud rock music in their ears, and raped them at Abu Girhab. We routinely send prisoners off to Syria, Egypt, Uzbekistan, and Krygzistan for such graphic tortures as boiling people alive. That means, as Lech Walesa said, that we are no longer a moral authority in the world today.