Bloodless Coup

Jim Inhofe

Normally I wouldn't bother berating Jim Inhofe. The man has been an embarrassment for years. But what he said yesterday is positively beyond the pale. He announced that he was outraged that others were outraged by American soldiers torturing Iraqis.

It would be bad enough if he was simply pro-torture (and it should be added pro-torture of the innocent; apparently the man can't be bothered to read military reports that say that the majority of people in these prisons are picked up by mistake). That would merely make him vicious, cruel and arguably demented, in favor of rape and in favor of using attack dogs. What's really shocking is that you have a man who holds an important position in the American government (he's chairman of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee) encourgaing the inhumane treatment of people that we are desperately trying to make like us, accept our presence in Iraq, and accept our values and form of government. It is this kind of thing that is going to make the Iraqis who did welcome the overthrow of Saddam Hussein turn against us, and possibly take up arms with the "insurgents" who are currently fighting our personnel. That makes him not only a grotesque person, but someone who is quite obviously endangering the American mission in Iraq and American lives, at home and abroad.

It's bad enough that this sort of sickening display is regularly heard in the media, this is the sort of thing that the enemies of the American government can point to as showing the "real" motives, behavior and feelings of Americans. It's this kind of thing that's enabled extremists to win the support of moderates throughout history. And it's very sad to see it going on today, especially on the same day that the Nick Berg video was released. People define others by what they do. Between the actions of people like Inhofe, the infamous guards at Abu Gharib, and the "superb" Secretary of Defense we seem to be doing very little to win hearts and minds of late, but quite a lot to incite fury.