Posted on 05/08/2004 9:01:04 PM PDT by new cruelty
Rush Limbaugh is a slow learner.
That might explain why he looked at the sadistic photos from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and likened them to some college fraternity high jinks.
Boolah, mullah! Boolah, mullah!
Most reasonable people expressed disgust by the sight of the bound, nude, hooded men in American custody being forced to degrade themselves sexually.
And Limbaugh surely would have, too, if it had been under the previous administration.
But Limbaugh's a referee without a whistle these days. So here's how he excused the inexcusable:
"This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin people's lives over it, and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time," he said on his radio show.
Limbaugh added: "I'm talking about people having a good time. These people, you ever heard of emotional release? You heard of need to blow some steam off?"
I knew he was an apologist. But I just figured that in light of his newfound expertise in the realm of investigatory zeal run amok -- something he claims to have learned the hard way in Palm Beach County -- he might have temporarily burst through the wall of his professional limitations.
But, like I said, Limbaugh is apparently a slow learner.
And yet, there's hope.
There used to be a time when he thought that the problem with drugs was that we weren't locking up the people who got caught. This was during the days when he thought the American Civil Liberties Union was a flaky impediment to justice and criminal defense lawyers were an evil bunch of liberal simps who were out to subvert the truth by freeing the guilty on procedural maneuvers.
He has been educated through experience in that regard.
Caught in cross hairs of justice
Ever since the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office declined to respectfully turn a blind eye to Limbaugh's years of prescription drug abuse, he has become a champion of the drug addict caught in the cross hairs of justice. He talks of the pain of addiction, the need for treatment and the unfairness of prosecutors pursuing people with a personal problem.
If you go to Limbaugh's Web site these days, it's full of tales of horrific miscarriages of justice and calls to end investigatory techniques that we, as Americans, shouldn't stand for.
There are warnings about the "threat to the rule of law." Harassment we can't condone. And a horrible "fishing expedition" for information that should chill us to the core.
No, none of that is about the sadistic abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.
It's all about Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer's having the nerve to document Limbaugh's drug abuse through the use of his medical records.
Oh, the horror!
From Limbaugh's bellowing, you'd think Krischer was breaking chemical lights and pouring the scorching phosphoric liquid over the naked talk-show host's... oh, never mind.
Besides, that's just "people having a good time."
All those naked Iraqis must be guilty of something, right? There can't be any innocent civilians rounded up by overzealous authorities. That never happens.
And as for the guilty -- well, the rights of people behind bars is just a left-wing abstraction.
For now. The slow learner better hope this isn't the next awakening in his education.
We laugh, but at the bitter irony of the truth.
God bless Rush, but he's erred here.
If only you people could crank up the same degree of dudgeon over Pearl having his throat cut like a chicken. At this point, I couldn't give a flying f* if the Pentagon just strafed the next fist-pumping crowd that celebrates on al-Jazeera when some American contractor gets slaughtered. One way or another, we'll communicate the message that terrorist attacks on the civilized world are not going to happen again.
Snarky elitism distilled to it's essence.
That will be news to the many conservative freepers who say almost the exact same thing, whether talking about their preference for the suburbs and country in comparison to liberal cities, or explaining with pride that they don't follow the crowds of the liberal/mushy middle majority on certain issues where the conservatives are the minority.
Sheesh, its 'with us or against us' in the war on terror, not on every aspect of every single issue discussed...
I agree. Rush is an icon for the right who once in a blue moon says something regrettable. This may be one of those times.
Here's a few comments from Rush's site:
The point is that they're using me because I'm the most prominent, maybe not the only, but I'm the most prominent voice that's not in this pack mentality. And since this is political, they have got to play this voice of mine and have people refute it and say it's not right. It's wrong or it's condemnable, or some sort of thing proving that this is political. Because I'm not an elected official. I'm not part of the Joint Chiefs. I'm not in the command structure. I'm not in the chain of command at all, and yet I have to somehow be condemned and discredited? It proves it's politics, folks!
And other media has been after Rush about this -
How else do you explain the NBC Nightly News, Crossfire, and the White House press briefing bringing me up in official questions to elected officials about my opinion of this?
You tell 'em, holdonnow. I'm one of the 21 million who has been listening to Rush since the early '90s. Wish I could get Levin's program in my city. :o)
Rush is right that hazing or initiation is far worse than what we see here.
The "outrage" is understandable, since most people are insulated from the reality of dealing with hard-core enemies, or they are just using it for political gain, and let's not forget that some are being led into indignation by others, since this rather minor humiliation, once revealed, can on one level be couched in contrast to the truly inhumane treatment that our people and allies are subjected to.
In effect, we say nothing of their treatment of our people, yet howl when their people are so minorly humiliated at our own hands...if we find this behavior so disgusting, what then must we think of woodchippers and the killing and raping of family members.
these incidents, while major at the moment due to media attention, will leave a subliminal message to people there and here as time passes...and it will pass quickly...
that message will be not a mere linear story of outrage, but affect the arab culture in small but significant ways
1:you arabs are nothing but dogs and objects to us
2:even our women laugh at and partake of your humiliation
3:as murderous and sick as you are in desecrating the bodies of our people, we are big enough to understand how wrong it is for us, the bigger and better people, to do the same.
This and whatever else may come out is just Lord of the Flies and Camp Runamok...people will pay for their crimes, commensurate to the severity...but it ain't the end of the world, and in my opinion, dumb as I am, I see far more threads of solid and positive tenure than what I hear out loud...
Rush whiffs every once in a while, but I think he still tipped the ball in this case.
It could be that Limbaugh's first impression -- and mine as well -- was that this appeared to be a case of abusive hijinks by some bored, tired, PO'd prison camp interns -- NOT torture and murder.
IMO, it's still debatable as to whether it's actually "abuse" or "torture," and the "murder" factor hasn't yet been proven.
In the context and scope of this incident compared to traditionally clear-cut cases of torture of POWs in Nam, at the Battle of the Bulge, the Bataan Death March, and at Gulags, this was a case of frat hazing.
Are you really saying that males on your ship repeatedly raped other males while videotaping it, shoved objects up their rears, forced men to masturbate and ejaculate into the mouths of others, and beat persons so bad that 1 died and several others came close to death?
Those are the serious charges of abuse that are being investigated and charges filed as a result. Regardless of how much the lying media/dems overhype some of the simple humiliation, abusive acts were perpetrated.
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