Journal freejung's Journal: Down with Darth Rumsfeld! 4
So I want to join the many voices around the world calling for the resignation or impeachment of Darth Rumsfeld.
The master of the Dark Side came under massive attack today from all sides, as people begin to realize that he is responsible for the rape and murder of Iraqi prisoners. He himself takes full responsibility: "These events occurred on my watch,'' Rumsfeld said. "I take full responsibility." And he's right, it's his fault, because it was his decision to privatize the collection of intelligence data, which led to insufficient oversight and control of the interrogation process and allowed this sort of thing to happen. This is probably only the tip of the iceburg. With something this horrific, it's not enough for the man responsible to apologize. His head must roll.
Now, before you go accusing me of being a terrorist, I should clarify that when I say "his head must roll" I'm using a literary device known as a metaphor. What I mean is, he must step down, and he should probably be brought up on charges of gross negligence. Down with Darth Rumsfeld!
Now, normally I'm a pretty calm and understanding guy, and I don't really take a punitive model of justice. So why do I think Rumsfeld must be punished? Well, there are several reasons. I think he should be removed from office in any case, because he is one of the greatest forces of evil this planet has ever seen. He was before this happened, and he will be long after this has been forgotten. But I know most people don't realize that, so I should give further justification for why I think he should be severely castigated for his offenses, besides the fact that these crimes were truly horrific and holding him responsible is simply the right thing to do.
The most important reason is national security. Now there's a line of argument you won't hear me invoke often! But it's true. By allowing this to happen, he has severely jeapordized the lives of Americans all over the world. How do you suppose Islam will react to this? I'll tell you how, they're pissed off! And, this time, with very good reason. This one incident will probably do more to recruit new members of Al Quaida than anything Osama ever did. I mean, they were already pissed, but now they're really pissed, and when radical Islamic extremists get really pissed, somebody usually ends up dead. This is bad. Rumsfeld has put us all in danger.
However, this danger can be mitigated to some extent if we send a strong message to the Muslim world that we will not tolerate this sort of thing, by punishing Rumsfeld to the maximum extent of the law. We should declare him an enemy combatant and throw him in GITMO! No, we shouldn't, that would violate his rights. But we should give him a fair trial, if at all possible convict him, and send him to prison for a very long time. This is the only way the Muslims will be convinced that we really mean it when we say we don't stand for torture. Just saying we're sorry ain't gonna cut it.
Another good reason is principle. I'm sure there are those out there who are saying, so what, who cares, Saddam did way worse. Yeah, sure he did. But the fact that we even have to say that says a lot, doesn't it? If we stand for this torture, if we condone it by letting the man responsible go free, let alone continue to run the occupation, well, maybe there is a difference in degree between our regime and Saddam Hussein's, but there is no difference in kind. This is exactly the sort of thing he would do. He just did it more. Hey, I have an idea, let's make it our national slogan:
"The USA! We torture people less!"
No! That doesn't work! The argument that we do the same things as Saddam, but only less of them, so therefore we are better, is pretty weak, don't you think? What I'm saying is, our only claim to legitimacy in Iraq, weak though it is, is the notion that we are a different kind of regime than Saddam. That we have liberated the Iraqis from exactly this sort of brutal torture. If we just turn around and do the same thing ourselves, and we condone it by failing to punish the man responsible, how can we claim to be any better? How can we claim this was a war of liberation? It never was, of course, it was always a war of conquest from the very beginning, but we must at least maintain the pretense that it was otherwise, or there will be hell to pay. There will probably be hell to pay anyway.
Another good reason to remove the dark jedi from power is that this invasion and occupation were largely his idea in the first place. Not only that, but he has consistently shown a callous disregard for human life and even the most rudimentary standards of human decency since he was chief council for Nixon. His removal, like that of Saddam, would just make the world a better place.
So I call on all of you to join me in calling for the impeachment, resignation, and indictment of Darth Rumsfeld. Make an example of him. Show the world that the American flag really doesn't stand for torture, murder, and rape.
Or does it really stand for torture, murder and rape after all?
Re: (Score:2)
State of the Union Remix (Score:2)
Appropriate quote: "The American flag stands for coroporate scandals, recession, stock market declines, blackmail, burning with hot irons, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, terror, mass murder, and rape."
It was intended as a joke, but it's turning out to be sadly accurate.
Repentance (Score:1)
Axis of Evil (Score:2)
Not a bad idea. But it's not as un-American as you might think. This sort of thing happens in American prisons all the time.