Powerline has posted an excellent analysis of the Army's report on prisoner abuse. Short story--there ain't no there there. The numbers show an astonishingly small number of cases of abuse the entire war on terror, not just in Iraq. 94 allegations of abuse in general, 8 allegations of abuse during interrogation out of 50,000 arrests and detentions during the Iraq war.
So Teddy Kennedy, who claimed Saddam's torture chambers had re-opened under American management, should apologize for slandering the US military. And Al Gore, who bellowed "how dare they...", needs to apologize also. Of course, I don't believe for a minute that this will ever happen. They have no integrity or sense of shame and they'll never even have to face a unkind word or tough question from the media, because the media is complicit. It was never really about what did or did not happen in Abu Ghraib. It was about damaging the President as much as possible, and if that damaged the morale of those doing the fighting or lessened their effectiveness because they're constantly wondering how this is going to play on CNN, so what? We're trying to win an election here.
Take away the rhetorical flourishes and the mock outrage and the political smoke and media mirrors, and it comes down to this. You can elect people who are serious about defending the nation or people who are not serious about defending the nation.
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