There is significant suspicious of the body counts and mass graves being given the show-and-tell to selected Congressmen. There are certainly bodies there, but the history and accountability is the issue, and the lack of disclosure on bulldozed bodies in Gulf I, etc., plus the history of deception since Vietnam. The more repugnant the statistic, the more easy the deception, since no one wants to look into it any further than necessary.
The other issue is who supplied the gas, who encouraged the revolt that led to the massacre. What are the actual civilian "collateral damage" counts from Gulf I and II... etc. All these numbers are so politicized as to make the Niger Yellowcake look like gospel.
The other issue is the almost pornographic way torture is described, always at politically opportune moments, such as the State of the Union. Given the other falsehoods that leads to the question of what and how many were actually tortured, and who knew about it, like that newspaper publisher who kept that to himself.
Torture was described by this administration as something bad for Saddham, but becomes something worthy of "outsourcing" to Egypt, or summary execution or as Bush says, "we wont' have to worry about them anymore".
Bottom line, a lot of people have tortured and killed, not just by Saddham. The question that needs answering is one of accountability, how best to deal with these issues. Since far more torture and killings goes on elsewhere in the world, the question is why Iraq, and what are the real motives, etc. |
