George Bush Speaks The Truth

He called the recent revelations of horrors inflicted on Iraqi prisoners "abhorrent", a big word for him, but he fell far short of an apology which is an oversight unlikely to be lost on his Arab audience. Some staffer tried to brush this off by telling the press later that he was saying "sorry" on the President's behalf but that rings about as true as the excuses for why publicly thanking various countries after September 11 didn?t include Canada. Bush went on to say on May 5 that "what took place in that prison does not represent the America that I know". And I am absolutely certain that is true: Bush does not have any familiarity with any part of America other than its aristocratic side; he certainly knows nothing about armed service or armed conflict and he can have little appreciation for the pressures on the people who fill that role. There is no question in my mind that many Americans consider Arabic people to be somewhat less than human and many Americans will see nothing wrong with the actions of those bone-headed troops. But noting that George Bush has many friends in the Arab world, particularly in Saudi Arabia, it is unlikely that he shares that view. So when he describes the actions of his troops as abhorrent, it is at least possible that he really means it and isn't saying so simply because they got caught. I do believe him on at least one count, though: this activity is not the norm among American troops. The problem, however, is that it is all too common among the troops of every nation. Up here in Canada we like to preach that we are better than Americans and that we are on a higher plane morally. In general, I think there is merit to that preaching but we are on very shaky ground when we start to criticize the actions of a few misguided and stupid American troops. It behooves all Canadians to remember the actions of some of our own troops in Somalia and, for that matter, some of our own troops right here in Canada. Most of the world considers Canada to have a decent moral status but even our troops have committed despicable acts in the course of combat, as an occupying force, or even for such bizarre motivations as "team building". The problem is that these tales of American actions in Iraq, while gruesome, are not unique in the annals of war. And don?t kid yourselves that your nation's soldiers would never do such things, or never have done these things or anything equally vulgar: men and women too easily drop all pretence of decency and humanity when they enter the arena of armed combat. However, the fact that such acts are all too common in the heat of warfare does not in any way excuse them. It is, nevertheless, hard to reconcile the acts of which America is presently being condemned in the face of the rest of their actions. In short, it is "abhorrent" to parade around prisoners without clothing but no one would bat an eye at simply killing them rather than capturing them. The fact is that Bush is right about the abhorrence of the degrading acts committed by his troops but it is no more or less abhorrent than the circumstances that brought those troops to be where they are. Soldiers can certainly be pigs; but it is their commander-in-chief who leads them to the trough. The real problem for Bush is that America is not judged the same as everyone else. It declares itself to be the arbiter of morality and goodness worldwide so when some of its sons and daughters behave like obscene hooligans, it is up to the nation to severely punish them. It is even worse that Bush is having a hard time winning the hearts and minds of the citizens of the Middle East; these revelations and his clumsy response might very well make matters worse. He should have apologized; he should have forcefully condemned the actions of his (few) miscreant troops; he should have stated very clearly what punishment will be meted out to the guilty parties; he should have addressed al-Jazeera if he wished anyone to take him seriously. I am willing to accept that Bush truly believes this is not the way to treat prisoners. But it isn't me he needs to convince, and I think his television broadcasts on May 5 are likely to have done more damage than good.