Watching the Senate Armed Services Committee testimony I was struck with this thought: "Well, there are hearings, and there are hearings."
Unlike the 9/11 hearings, whose partisan tone was set by its partisan roots (the New Jersey widows who formed the impetus for the hearings aren't homemakers, they're activitst), these hearings have a substantial basis. There has been some kind of malfesceance committed by the US Armed Forces in Iraq, and there must be an accounting.
Ironically, while the vast majority of the foriegn and domestic critics of the Iraq War are using this loathsome event to spin political hay by suggesting that this is emblematic of the dire situation in Iraq ("I told you so!"), what we're seeing now is singular in the world. These hearings are precisely what seperates the United States from other nations. How many times do we see an event like this? (Even Britain washes its dirty laundry in private.)
This is democracy in action. This is what must be seen. Not some pomp n' circumstance July graduation ceremony ("ok, you're sovriegn now!"), rather, the US military is accountable, and is being held accountable in a way that does not happen in any other nation. If it is moral to suggest that we can profit from this loss (the unfortunate, inevitable, and now, substantiated accusation of abuse), then let me say this: no one is above the law. No one. How rare. If America is (was) possessed by hubris, I can assure you that it is no longer.
Everyone makes mistakes, a former client of mine said, but the real measure of a man's character is how we respond to errors. It's about our ability to respond, our response-ability. If those mistakes are crimes, they should be treated as such. Contrary to Sen. Levin, our American values have not been compromised. They are on full display. No one is above the law. There will be a reckoning. This is the spirit of justice, and ironically, the ideall of Islam.
Contrary to what talking heads might say this is unprecedented. The hearing was broadcast live on Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, and Al Hurrah -- no doubt one of the first times that they have seen military chiefs be grilled for wrongdoing -- and accepting the criticism! It is this rule of law, the desire for justice, the belief of equality and respect for dignity that is America's best public diplomacy.
So to the AM apologists for the abusers, for those that might snort and denigrate this hearing as a partisan witch hunt, I would say and to the grandstanding Jackasses-- SHUT THE F*CK UP! We must not politicize this -- even though a good deal of the usual suspects are attempting just that -- we must treat this as it is, what Charles Krauthammer not as systematic, government torture, but as criminal abuse:
We think of torture as the kind that Saddam practiced: pain, mutilation, maiming and ultimately death. We think of it as having a political purpose: intimidation, political control, confession and subjugation. What happened at Abu Ghraib [sic] was entirely different. It was gratuitous sexual abuse, perversion for its own sake.
Under any circumstance this is wrong, whether in Abu Gharib or Neverland Ranch. What's more, Krauthammer argues that under the present circumstances, this incident confirms the suspicions of the most bigoted of Islamists, viz., the West is thouroughly perverted, and we will pervert them.
This is not partisan, this concerns us all.
There are hearings, and there are hearings.
(hat tip: Stephen Green's Required Reading)
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