More Bad News May Be on the Way for Bush (So-called "NEWS" BARF ALERT)

Associated Press via Yahoo ^ | 5/8/2004 | TERENCE HUNT

[ElkGroveDan]

WASHINGTON - In one of the darkest weeks of his administration, President Bush saw America's reputation sullied, the U.S. effort in Iraq damaged and his own campaign for re-election clouded. And more bad news may be on the way.

While the world already has been horrified by pictures of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, the Pentagon (news - web sites) warns there are many more photos and videos that have not been disclosed.

They show "acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman," embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress.

From the White House to Capitol Hill, policy-makers are worried that the United States faces lasting damage abroad — particularly in the Middle East — from the pictures of naked Arab men being tortured and humiliated by American soldiers, the same forces sent to Iraq to liberate the country from Saddam Hussein's torture and repression.

Analysts describe the pictures as great recruiting tools for al-Qaida and other extremist groups and said they undermine America's claims to a moral high ground. Rumsfeld said the impact was "radioactive."

Bush, in his weekly radio address Saturday, said, "They are a stain on our country's honor and reputation." He said the abuses were the work of a few and do not reflect the overall character of the 200,000 members of the U.S. military who have served in Iraq in the past year.

Six months from the November elections, Iraq weighs heavily on the president.

April was the deadliest month yet for American soldiers in Iraq and May is off to a bloody start.

On the diplomatic front, the administration does not know who will take power in Iraq from the United States in a June 30 handover.

Costs are soaring. The administration has sent Congress an unexpected $25 billion request for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Day after day, the extraordinary apologies from the president and his top deputies dominated the news.

Pollsters and presidential experts are scratching their heads over how the prisoner scandal will affect Bush's re-election hopes.

"There's such a big question mark there, it's unlike anything we've seen before," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.

"The public is very critical of (Bush's) management of Iraq. They don't think he has a clear plan for bringing it to a successful conclusion, but a thin majority of the public has been hanging in with that it was the right decision to go to war," Kohut said. "This could be the event which makes people say 'Oh, we did make a mistake.'"

Political scientist James Thurber of American University likened the Iraq images to the infamous Vietnam pictures of a naked young girl fleeing a napalm attack and a Viet Cong prisoner being executed on a Saigon street.

Referring to the new pictures, Thurber said, "That's what we're going to remember about Iraq. It's just not going to go away. That may have a lasting and negative effect on his campaign. It certainly does right now and I think you'll see it in the polls immediately."

Support for Bush's handling of foreign policy and terrorism, usually his strongest issue, was at 50 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Friday. That compares with 55 percent a month ago.

Kurt Campbell, a former Pentagon official during the Clinton administration, said it was too early to tell whether Rumsfeld would be able to keep his job.

"The real issue is there's more stuff that's going to come out that is troubling, beyond humiliation and torture. Deaths I think," said Campbell, director of international security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"And there's going to be quite a long record of warnings that were either ignore or dismissed. And that I think is going to be problematic," Campbell said.

Lawmakers worried the pictures would harm U.S. credibility for years, perhaps decades. While the United States champions freedom and democracy in Iraq, the pictures show vivid scenes of cruelty and insensitivity.

Splashed across front pages across the Middle East and around the world, the pictures may undermine "the substantial gains toward the goal of peace and freedom in various operation areas of the world, most particularly Iraq," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the committee's top Democrat, said the abuses "dishonored our military and our nation and they made the prospects for success in Iraq even more difficult than they already are."

Added Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.: "This was a political and public relations Pearl Harbor."

Bush pledged in his radio address that the United States would not be thrown into retreat.

"This has been a difficult few weeks," Bush said. "Yet our forces will stay on the offensive, finding and confronting the killers and terrorists who are trying to undermine the progress of democracy in Iraq."

[ElkGroveDan]

In one of the darkest weeks of his administration, President Bush saw America's reputation sullied, the U.S. effort in Iraq damaged and his own campaign for re-election clouded. And more bad news may be on the way.

This is SOOOOO bad. It is supposed to be a NEWS story for pete's sake. I don't mind liberals expressing their opinions, but they need to save it for the editorial pages.

[Cicero]

"More bad news is on the way, and we have the photographs right here in our pockets."

[My2Cents]

The media and the Democrats in Congress want only one thing -- not humane treatment of Iraqi prisoners, but GW Bush's defeat. The media and the Democrats will sell our troops out, call for the heads of those who have been effective architects of the war effort, and fervently want defeat in winning the peace in Iraq, if these things will enhance the likelihood that Bush will lose in November.

[ElkGroveDan]

..and while we are on the topic, let me say it now. I really don't care that these prisoners were humiliated. Being a POW IS a humiliating experience by its very nature.

Sure the guys who did this were way out of line. So lets call them jerks, slap them across the head, toss them in the brig and get on with things.

Let's also keep in mind that these Iraquis who are still fighting have more or less removed themselves from the rules of civil warfare. They have hidden behind women and children, fired from places of worship and disguised themselves as civilians. I'm not shedding a tear for these b*st*rds.

Meanwhile I am going to keep remembering the the pilots whose throats were slit on 9/11, the terrified parents with their innocent children on those planes that were hurled to their deaths, and all the innocent hardworking people in the World Trade Center who died horrible, gruesome deaths.

We need to keep reminding the world what this war is all about. The liberal pukes need to cut their whining and hand-wringing over trivial crap.

[oceanview]

But part of this is the white house's fault - they have no media strategy, none. Other than apologies. Look at the polls, the public supports Rumsfeld, I see no desire amongst the majority of Americans to trash the US military and render it ineffective over these photos. Yet the white house has no spin working to bolster that, to tap into that.

At some point, they are going to have to fight back, otherwise the media is just going to run this story every day for the next 180 days. Kerry won't even have to campaign, it won't matter how many 250K+ jobs reports come out.

FIGHT BACK NOW! The media and the Dems have formed into a lynch mob against our military and the projection of our power into Iraq.

[Zeein]

"FIGHT BACK NOW! The media and the Dems have formed into a lynch mob against our military and the projection of our power into Iraq."
How? contact info (email addresses and phone numbers) please- dems/medias whoever needs to hear us.

[oceanview]

Well generally, people here are making their voice heard. Doing things like calling into talk radio and expressing this sentiment, letters to the editor in newspapers, email your congressperson and senator.

We criticized Clinton for using polls and focus groups to manage white house policy; but you have to have some of that, you can't run headlong into a buzzsaw on an issue when the majority of the public is saying "why are we detroying ourselves over these photos?"

[seastay]

This is a war, these people who have been fighting on the wrong side are just lucky to even alive, but by the grace of our own humane government they have been spared, where is the credit of that? Does anybody in the liberal media really thing for a minute had Sadam and his following been able to control 30% of the oil and economics of the world that these militants would be serving tea to our civilians and handing out ice water to our solders, much less following the Geneva convention? Furthermore where is the outrage that many mothers here in the US have lost their children, or many wont be able to see the sons our daughters for another year, what about the abuse of neglect to the American families having to suffer because of the mess over there created by these thugs. Sometimes it's hard to determine whose side journalist are on, since they don't have any sympathy for our own troops and the abuse afflicted on them by the these militant thugs!

[bornintexas]

Maybe the spineless repubs will take Delay's lead.....he was out on Friday with his support for Rumsfield and the troops. The public still supports this war and the dims/media will turn the public against THEM. They're just too stupid to see it. They keep trying with everything they can get their hands on, but to no avail. Hopefully, it will stay that way.

Let your congressman/senators/media know that you support the wot and the troops. And our soldiers have NOTHING to apologize for.

Put me in the group....who cares what the Arab world thinks of us. They have never liked us and never will.

[JamesA]

I agree, Go to war and play patty-cake....no way man, the name of the tame is to kill, terrorize and generally frighten the enemy. They should be so afraid the literally mess their pants when they hear an airplane fly over or even think of harming an American, War is evil and should be.

[A_Niceguy_in_CA]

Another campaign piece by the AP in support of John Kerry.

The AP will reporting this type of "breaking news" articles more often thru the November elections.

[Let's Roll]

It's amazing to me - please, Mr. President, this isn't Austin. The new tone - go along with these AHs to get along - will NOT work at the national level.

And how bad the news will be is entirely up to the American people. Whether they will continue to let themselves be manipulated the way they have for the last week.

Time to break out the "Been There - Done That" t-shirts when the lib lackeys in the media push the next set of buttons.

This entire fiasco is the natural result of gays in the military and women in combat units and that's supposed to be Bush's fault? Wake up America - you are being had.

[Irene Adler]

"More bad news is on the way, and we have the photographs right here in our pockets."

I am guessing that more photos will not make the situation appreciably worse, even if they show worse behavior. They will already have been largely discounted in the public mind. Announcing more bad photos in advance of their appearing in the media is actually a good idea, IMHO. It starts the discounting process.

I am wondering if these events might actually engender an odd sympathy in the minds of a significant number of the public because of the mess Bush has to deal with that is clearly not of his making. The public is not nearly as likely to turn against Bush and the military as it was in the naive Viet Nam years. The left has shown its true colors too many times since then.

[texasflower]

I tend to agree with your take on this. They think they are damaging the President tremendously by keeping this in the news.

Right now, I think the Pentagon and the President have the upper hand.

They have told everyone that there are worse pictures. Every time they write yet another article about worse pictures to come, they also have to say that Rumsfeld himself said so.

The nation is already being desensitized to it. When it happens, most Americans will be disgusted, but ready for it.

[texasflower]

This is an Iraqi blog, and I think the things expressed here are very encouraging.

I ask that everyone go to this blog and read the entries over the last couple of days.

Especially the one that relates a conservation in sort of an interview type fashion.

My opinion is that as bad as everything looks right now, our actual standing and reputation in the Middle East and the world may eventually be enhanced by this scandal.

We are handling it firmly and openly and at least some are already taking notice.

Here's a short excerpt, but PLEASE go to the blog. You will be encouraged, I promise.

From "Iraq the Model"....

I can say that at least some Iraqis seemed to have understood the situation and were satisfied with the reaction of the American officials and their promises that the offenders will be punished. While a wide segment of Iraqis seemed indifferent with the issue and only showed their disapproval when they are asked about it, but rarely with what one can call an angry tone, and I’m talking about my personal experience here, as I tried to ask the largest number of people about their feelings before I write about it.

Here I would like to provide a conversation I had with some friends whom I haven’t seen for a long time and met just yesterday. After a few words of greetings that friends usually exchange after not seeing each other for a long time, the conversation turned towards the current situation in Iraq, and as the prisoners abuse issue is the hottest topic nowadays, I started my attempts to discover their points of view about it. They were all upset but they showed satisfaction with the fast and firm reaction of the coalition higher officials and were also impressed by the honesty of the American soldier who reported the abuse and uncovered tha awful behavior of those criminals but at the same time they said that they’re looking forward to “see the offenders get some real punishment, not just directing few harsh words. A sentence for 3 or 4 years in prison will be convenient”. Others showed more understanding to the American law system.

I also noticed that the abuse pictures brought a flashback from the days of Saddam and the way Iraqi prisoners were treated in; a tone of fear was in the voice of my friend “this could happen to me or anyone else. If someone gets randomly arrested (for being near the site of some clashes or violent demonstrations in the wrong time), he might be tortured or humiliated by the prison guards before they recognize that he’s got nothing to do with the insurgency or the terrorists" That I must say will have a very bad effect on encouraging Iraqis to participate in the political process in Iraq.
Later on, we jumped to another topic, which is the GC and the awaited authority hand-over. Two of my friends condemned the reaction of Jalal Talbani to the prisoners issue when he relatively ignored the questions about it and considered the matter to be “secondary”. One of them added “how comes that the highest ranking officers in the coalition, Tony Blair and GWB gave much attention to this matter and severely condemned the abusive behavior of those soldiers in their latest speeches while Mr. Talbani thinks it’s not worth talking about!?

Iraq the Model
http://www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/


PLEASE VISIT THE BLOG ITSELF. I DIDN'T POST THE BEST PART.

PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND READ THE ENTRY THAT IS RELATING THE EXPERIENCE OF A PRISON DOCTOR (IRAQI) AT ABU GHARIB.