A FEW HAVE BETRAYED THE MANY

Immoral Rummy's morale boost for amoral US troops

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Who would you rather be tortured by? An American, a Brit, or an Iraqi?

As revelations of Iraqis tortured by their American liberators grow and swell, prime suspect US Defence Sickretary Rumsfault has declared “A few have betrayed the many”.

How right he is: the FEW comprising US Presidense Bush and his psychopathic neo-CON clique (of which Rummy is a gold card carrying member) have betrayed the MANY gullible Americans who swallowed their barefaced lies about terrorism and the urgent need to attack Iraq.

Under the circumstances, it figures that Rummy now stands accused of authorising a program that allowed brutal, sex-oriented interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects in Afghanistan to be used against prisoners in Iraq. After all, he's the MAN!

In pursuing the neo-CON agenda of overt global domination, the Shrub and his sick, salivating off-siders have offended the world and demeaned the very values the USA purports to best represent.

These daze, the USA represents a recruitment bonanza for the most virulent of anti-US forces.

Damn the torpedoes? Damn democracy! All thanks to the demented Bush League.

Raving Rummy’s blatant PR drop-in to Iraq to "boost morale" last week was embarrassing as it was nauseating to watch. He spent half an hour at the monstrous Abu Ghraib prison, ignored the cells and the caged Iraqis, glad-handed a few grinning GI’s who seemed pleased with a pat on the head from a war criminal, and within 7 hours Rummy was jetting back to Mordor… I mean, Washingtoon.

Coincidentally, the very next day hundreds of Iraqi prisoners were released and the US has promised to reduce the number held. What’s more, the Pentagon says it is changing interrogation methods for prisoners in Iraq (but not Afghanistan? Not Guantanamo Bay?).

Now that the heads out of the bag, it seems the use of "change of scenery, diet manipulation, sleep adjustment, military working dogs, sensory deprivation (i.e. hoods), or stress positions, to get information out of detainees" will be prohibited.

Gee, I feel so much better now, don’t you?

This noxious shit - indeed the entire US invasion and occupation of Iraq - is clearly illegal and a violation of the very Geneva Conventions the arrogant US so blithely disdains.

The Pentagon's knee-jerk response to sudden media scrutiny also seems to confirm that the sustained torment inflicted on captive Iraqis by US personnel at Abu Ghraib was indeed approved from on-high.

Like Hitler’s Nazis before them – the accused grunts plea that they were just “following orders”.

US authorities have finally admitted what the International Committee of the Red Cross has long accused: that at least 70% - and as many as 90% - of Iraqis imprisoned by US forces have done nothing wrong.

I know I'm repeating myself but let’s stress that point, shall we? Practically EVERY Iraqi locked-up was/is an INNOCENT human being.

More: how many of those innocent Iraqis are depicted in the sickening photos from Abu Ghraib?

Has ANY Iraqi been CHARGED and CONVICTED of any crime?

Who among those prisoners deserved to be humiliated, tormented, and traumatised by leering US reservists in the name of the Bush regime? What has it achieved? Who has it benefited?

Well, US abuses are clearly a godsend for Osama bin Laden and like-minded fellow-travellers.

Is THAT was Bush wants? MORE fecking terrorism?

No wonder an opinion poll conducted for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) revealed 80% of Iraqis mistrust the CPA and 82% condemn the US occupation.

The lies and deceptions that paved the Bush highway to war have been hammered into the history books for all time: the WMD that didn't exist, the terror links that weren't there, the war to reduce terrorism that actually BROUGHT terrorism to Iraq.

Ironically, it was Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship that kept Osama bin Laden and Islamist “terror” groups OUT of Iraq.

There never was a connection between Saddam Hussein, Al Qaeda and the September 11, although the Bush regime mined that twisted vein of bullshit then, and continues to do so. Depressingly, many Americans actually believe Iraq WAS involved in the 2001 atrocities in New Yoik and Washintoon, which I guess proves that Bush’s assessment of the US electorate is accurate: Yanks are stupid.

And while the prisoner abuse scandal accumulates for the Bush regime, Brit Poodle PM Tiny Blur is signing with relief. The UK's Daily Mirror news tabloid has finally conceded that photos of Brits torturing Iraqi prisoners were bogus, even though the wider issue of British abuses highlighted by both the Red Cross and Amnesty International remains like a neon “Welcome Osama” sign in the heart of Iraq.

A member of the Territorial Army part-time reserve force, who served in Iraq in the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (the same regiment allegedly depicted in the discredited Daily Mirror pics), says British troops beat Iraqi prisoners "for fun", much like their US counterparts.

Appearing on UK’s ITV, the soldier says some prisoners were often "beyond" screaming or crying out.

And with six soldiers from the Lancashire’s about to be charged with torture offences in Iraq, the Mirror photo farce pales into insignificance. Hmm, maybe the Brit Blur better pump himself up for more nasty disclosures pending. But will he hear? Will he listen?

The International Red Cross repeatedly brought up prisoner abuse issues with top US military and civilian officials. In May 2003 the Red Cross sent a memo describing more than 200 allegations of mistreatment during capture and interrogation of prisoners.

The memo was given to Rear (suck hole?) Admiral James Robb at coalition headquarters in Qatar. His heroic response? Non-Iraqi “detainees” were no longer forced to wear wristbands labelled “terrorist.”

And then there’s Abu Ghraib and its US administrators. A handful of pissant US soldiers at the bottom of the military food-chain have been charged with criminal offences, with courts-martial pending, while their commanders are getting away with murder. Literally.

It makes sense then for the Bush administration to press on with its campaign to “protect” Americans from International Criminal Court jurisdiction. To date, 89 cowed or sycophantic nations have signed “agreements” with Washingtoon pledging that Americans accused of grave international offences – INCLUDING WAR CRIMES - will be handed over to US jurisdiction. Indeed, the US refuses military aid to nations unwilling to sign such immunity accords.

And to get those all important signatures, Washingtoon has exerted "enormous pressure".

As with the US invasion of Iraq, nations that don’t line up to sign-up and kiss George’s arse will go onto the Bushies shit-list. Mind you, anyone wanting to pucker up to the Titular Texan will first have to unplug the slurping tongue of Australian Prime Sinister John Mini Me Howard.

However, recent US attempts to publicly browbeat Pakistan, Morocco and Tunisia into providing troops for the Iraq occupation to give it “a Muslim face” have failed.

The permanent court of the ICC was established in 2002 after ad hoc institutions dealt with war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. From the outset, Bush opposed it.

He insisted on so-called Article 98 agreements under which nations guaranteed not to surrender Americans to ICC prosecution for reasons that have become all too obvious, even before revelations of sickening US persecution suffered by Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Meanwhile, Red Cross reports of abuse at the infamous US concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay have been confirmed by recently released illegally held British “detainees”.

These poor bastards have revealed that prisoners - among them Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, left to rot there by their own deceitful government - were subjected to brutal assaults, forced confessions and humiliation by the US military. US justice? US crime!

And in Afghanistan the US military has launched an investigation into beatings, sleep deprivation, taunts and more sexual abuse of prisoners in its tender, loving care. It’s the second such investigation in that volatile, bombed-out shell of a country in a week.

Too bad the Bushies couldn’t be bothered finishing their holy, Christian fundamentalist mission there before invading Iraq and losing sight of Osama bin Laden.

The core problem for the world remains this: if its ok for the US – that mighty pillar of democracy and glowing example of western civilization – to torture, to terrify, to attack other nations without regard to international treaty, law and agreement - then its ok for ANYONE to do the same. There just isn’t a counter argument.

If the US considers itself above the law – above the ICC, for example – then who is to say what constitutes a war crime, a dictatorship, a TERRORIST?

The big knobs with bloodstained hands running the Sudan, Zimbabwe, Burma, Tibet, China, North Korea, Israel and Russia (to name just a few) must be smiling warmly as the US continues to shoot itself in the foot. By the Bush League’s words and deeds the US legitimises the heinous policies of oppressive governments around the globe.

Who needs the Taliban?

Who needs Osama?

Thanks to the US invasion, Iraq is the latest terrorist proving ground. Still, you’d have to be a bloody idiot – or Donald Rumsfault – to think that everyone opposing the US occupation in Iraq is linked to Al Qaeda.

Fortunately, the occupation will soon end (at least “technically”) mainly because of the looming November poll in the USA!

On June 30, according to US authorities, there will be a “hand over” of power to the “interim” Iraqi government established by the USA, and in January 2005 a “national assembly” will replace the “interim” Iraqi government with a “transitional” Iraqi government (according to Colon Powell), and a “provisional government” (according to Pull Bremer).

Bremer, US pro-consul of occupied Iraq reckons "The CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) dissolves on June 30. Does that mean that the United States is going away? Absolutely not."

To make himself absolutely clear, he also reckons the United States does not stay where it is "not welcome".

Well, who the fuck invited the US in the first bloody place?!

It will come as no surprise to the savvy readers of Xenox News that neither the US occupation forces nor any of their little hangers-on actually envisage being “requested” to leave Iraq by any hypothetical new “sovereign” Iraqi government/s.

In fact, US forces are busily establishing the big military bases that they invaded Iraq for in the first place.

As for the grieving family of foolish young Nicholas Berg, the small-time American entrepreneur beheaded by militants in Iraq last week, let’s take a step back.

As cruel and savage as Berg’s murder was, how can it compare with the “shock and awe” inflicted by the world’s only remaining military Superpower on one of the world’s most crushed and powerless countries?

Who dares draw the distinction between being decapitated with a carving knife and having ones limbs blown off by shrapnel?

Who dares compare the suffering of tens of thousands of traumatised Iraqi families in war zone with the suffering of a few hundred American families safely ensconced in Fortress Amerika.

All have lost loved ones in the bloody-minded US occupation of Iraq. All will carry scars for life.

Berg’s father perfectly sums it up for all who feel a similar pain:

"Nicholas Berg died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld.” Amen.

But the ludicrous, bloody-handed farce in Iraq continues.

Testifying before the US Senate on Wednesday, General Richard Myers paraphrased his Washintoon masters: "This process has to be internationalised. The UN has to play the governance role. That's how we're, in my view, eventually going to win." By that, of course, he means “shift the responsibility and blame”.

I guess he means the same UN that the belligerent Bush regime disdained, derided and threatened while it geared up for its unprovoked and long planned invasion of Iraq.

The world urged the US not to do this.

The US snubbed all critics. As with the UN, the US disdained, derided and threatened all opponents to its dangerous intentions.

And the danger of such wanton, illegal and unilateral acts of agression was as clear then as it is clearly demonstrated now.

Journalist Paul McGeough reminds us that “The roots of Islamic terrorism find fertile soil in the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israel, its use of extrajudicial executions against Palestinian gunmen, the Israeli gunning down of schoolboy stone-throwers, and the wholesale theft of Arab land to build homes for Jews”.

Amen again.

Unfortunately for those of us yearning for a peaceful accord in the Middle East, the neo-CONs have inflamed the situation and have utilised Sharon’s Israeli tactics in Iraq.

How many more Abu Ghraibs is that going to cost?

How many Nicholas Bergs?

How many September 11’s?

This was Max Gross for xenoxnews.com wishing on a star, wailing at the moon, waiting for Godot.