BUSH NAZI CHATTER IN HIGH GEAR, AS AM RADIO TAKES TO PRAISING ABUSE

BUSH NAZI CHATTER IN HIGH GEAR, AS AM RADIO TAKES TO PRAISING ABUSE

Meanwhile, Kerry Paints Himself To Be Bizarrely Out Of Touch, As He Goes Around Talking About Health Care Costs, Unable To Adjust To The Vital Moment For America That Has Arisen

by John S. Ashton

May 10, 2004 – So now you see clearly, America, that Bush Republicans are Nazis. Period.

You don’t have to take our word. Once again, they are making no secret about it. Just turn on AM talk radio today – any of the stations – and you will hear the Bush/Limbaugh machine in high gear using their typical blame-and-lie tactics to cover for the horrible, systemic abuse and, even better, to blame the Iraqis for it.

Here is the universal line being pushed by the Republican Party and their talk radio Nazi brethren:

1) It was just a few people – lowly soldiers – who did this, so punish them and then forget the whole thing.

2) These Iraqis were shooting at us – that’s why they became prisoners – so don’t pretend they were angels (ie. don’t pretend they didn’t deserve a good abusing in violation of all basic human rights laws.)

3) Anyone who wants to make a big deal out of this is undermining the War on Terror, and thus not a good American – yes, only wimpy liberals who want to cave in to the terrorists care about this and are responsible for trying to blow it up into an all out "scandal."

We will – for those of you who need it – lay out plainly how each of these is flat out dishonest and part of the usual blame-and-lie tactics – not to mention a complete affront to all American values and basic standards of morality and decency. But first, let’s see what the Democratic candidate for President has to say about all of this.

Kerry tackles health costs (from CNN)

Yes, that’s right. While President Bush is in full PR damage control mode, heading to the Pentagon to make a diversionary speech backing Rumsfeld and filling the headlines with supposed plans to deal harshly with those responsible, Kerry is talking health care costs.

If John Kerry’s goal is to paint himself as someone who is detached, out of touch, and, playing directly into the fears most people would have of switching Presidents at this point, someone who doesn’t respond adequately and strongly when unexpected situations arise, he is doing a wonderful job. I mean, honestly, the only reason people would vote for President Bush over John Kerry at this point is they know if someone attacks us, President Bush will pick up all his guns and fire and fire and fire, while they wonder if a Democrat, in this case Kerry, would not respond quickly and forcefully, would let world opinion or polls or political considerations leave America leaderless and limp at a moment that requires decisive actions.

Indeed, again and again this weekend I heard people saying, "Where is Kerry on this?" "Where is Kerry?" "He made one statement – in a blasé manner – but where is his strong stance and rounding up the Democrats to take a stand?"

I gave him the weekend to see if he would gather steam, make a plan, then unleash it this week. But all he gave us was, "How about those health care costs?" Yes, it is America’s worst fears about Democrats being played out.

At the same time, America’s worst fears about the Bush/Limbaugh Republicans are playing out. Let’s quickly debunk the horrible lies they are using to justify this entirely inexcusable abuse for which the Bush administration is directly responsible.

1) It was just a few people – lowly soldiers – who did this, so punish them and then forget the whole thing.

Reality: Red Cross Report Describes Systemic Abuse in Iraq (see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14011-2004May10.html )

Yes, the abuse was systemic, had been repeatedly reported to the administration, and yet they did nothing. Before the war, Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that if there were not legal council put in place in each prison – as it had been during the first Gulf War – abuse like this would occur. And Paul Bremmer said he had repeatedly told the administration about the problem and that something should have been done about the abuse much earlier.

The AM talk radio hosts know all this, but their goal is not decency or truth but to cover for Bush Nazi butt, and so they are telling the lie – they same one the President has been telling repeatedly – that this involved "very, very few" people and was practically an isolated incident which has been dealt with as soon as we learned about it.

Pretty nice trick, huh?

A) We invaded their country. Justify it as you will, that is the simple fact. We showed up guns blaring on their streets. They shoot back, they are the barbarians? Nice try, Nazi bimbos.

B) More importantly, first of all, no, not all of them were shooting at us. People have been rounded up for a myriad of reasons, for everything ranging from suspicion of plotting to stand against the coalition to being someone they wanted to question. But even for those who had been shooting at us, that is THE WHOLE POINT of the Geneva Convention – to have rules for prisoners of war, ie. people who had been shooting at you who you capture. This line of commentary from the Bush/Limbaugh Nazis shows that they don’t consider the abuse to be wrong because they simply don’t believe in human rights conventions.

Which leads us back to lie number 1, that only a few people were involved. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumseld had stated 2 years ago that we weren’t going to follow the Geneva Conventions, that they would be too cumbersome during a War on Terror (see transcript of Friday's Senate hearing, during which a number of Senators, including Senator Clinton, pointed out this fact.) In other words, our Secretary of Defense said to hell with human rights, we’re going to do whatever we please.

And, under the command of our intelligence officers and civilian contractors, our soldiers did – on a widespread, systematic basis, as dictated by the Secretary of Defense and the Bush administration - directly follow their order to forget the human rights standards of the Geneva Convention.

Then to lie 3:

So first they tried to blame the Iraqis for their own abuse, ie. if they hadn’t been shooting at us, we wouldn’t have abused them.

Then, they are blaming liberals, the media, but even more clearly and horribly, simply stating that these abuses are not such a big deal and that anyone who claims they are is un-American and undermining the security of our country – yes, the line of attack they used to march us into Iraq in the first place – and the line of attack the Nazis constantly used.

Here are the simple facts: 1) the Bush administration discarded the Constitution and gave itself the right to round up whoever they want for as long as they want without any right to lawyer, hearing, or even a single phone call, 2) they set up concentration camps where they have kept these prisoners for years – and for any of you who have wondered about how these people being kept are being treated, 3) we see that they are systematically abusing and torturing these people, as they said they would in dismissing the Geneva Conventions.

Rounding up whoever they feel like, discarding legal protections and the Constitution, torturing them, and… then saying, as they are today, that, yes, that’s right, that is what they are doing, and so what, they have a right to do it and anyone who questions that right is a threat to our nation.

Forever let us put behind us any doubt that these people are the 1930’s Nazis, and that no matter what the outcome of the upcoming election they will not go away but just fester and plan for their next, even more openly amoral and brutal return to power.

And what does the one man who is in position to protect the nation from this fate have to say about the subject?

"I've seen the faces of America's health care crisis," said Kerry. "I've heard their stories." (from CNN)

I have one word of advice for the nation: Arabs, leave, now.

No, this is not joke and we are not anti-Arab. Just acknowledge the simple reality and the fate that will become your next generation and get out while you still can.