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episodes in imperial hypocrisy
Feb. 18th, 2006 01:11 amFrom Harold Pinter's Nobel prize acceptance speech:
I know that President Bush has many extremely competent speech writers but I would like to volunteer for the job myself. I propose the following short address which he can make on television to the nation. I see him grave, hair carefully combed, serious, winning, sincere, often beguiling, sometimes employing a wry smile, curiously attractive, a man's man.
'God is good. God is great. God is good. My God is good. Bin Laden's God is bad. His is a bad God. Saddam's God was bad, except he didn't have one. He was a barbarian. We are not barbarians. We don't chop people's heads off. We believe in freedom. So does God. I am not a barbarian. I am the democratically elected leader of a freedom-loving democracy. We are a compassionate society. We give compassionate electrocution and compassionate lethal injection. We are a great nation. I am not a dictator. He is. I am not a barbarian. He is. And he is. They all are. I possess moral authority. You see this fist? This is my moral authority. And don't you forget it.'
* * *
I need a new Bush/imperialism icon.
* * *
Rumsfeld also took a swipe at Annan, saying: "He's never been to Guantanamo Bay," whereas representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross "stayed there, lived there 24 hours a day" to observe conditions.
"That place is being run as well as any detention facility can be run," he added, his voice rising.
"It's absolutely beyond comprehension," he said, that calls for closing Guantanamo Bay can be based on allegations of mistreatment and torture by the prisoners, whom Rumsfeld said are trained to lie.
A UN report issued earlier this week said some of the treatment of prisoners amounts to torture.
So since Rumsfeld is saying that Annan doesn't know what he's talking about since he hasn't been there, the U.S. will surely invite UN observers to visit the camp in order to observe that it is in concordance with all articles of the Geneva Convention, right?
I know that President Bush has many extremely competent speech writers but I would like to volunteer for the job myself. I propose the following short address which he can make on television to the nation. I see him grave, hair carefully combed, serious, winning, sincere, often beguiling, sometimes employing a wry smile, curiously attractive, a man's man.
'God is good. God is great. God is good. My God is good. Bin Laden's God is bad. His is a bad God. Saddam's God was bad, except he didn't have one. He was a barbarian. We are not barbarians. We don't chop people's heads off. We believe in freedom. So does God. I am not a barbarian. I am the democratically elected leader of a freedom-loving democracy. We are a compassionate society. We give compassionate electrocution and compassionate lethal injection. We are a great nation. I am not a dictator. He is. I am not a barbarian. He is. And he is. They all are. I possess moral authority. You see this fist? This is my moral authority. And don't you forget it.'
* * *
I need a new Bush/imperialism icon.
* * *
Rumsfeld also took a swipe at Annan, saying: "He's never been to Guantanamo Bay," whereas representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross "stayed there, lived there 24 hours a day" to observe conditions.
"That place is being run as well as any detention facility can be run," he added, his voice rising.
"It's absolutely beyond comprehension," he said, that calls for closing Guantanamo Bay can be based on allegations of mistreatment and torture by the prisoners, whom Rumsfeld said are trained to lie.
A UN report issued earlier this week said some of the treatment of prisoners amounts to torture.
So since Rumsfeld is saying that Annan doesn't know what he's talking about since he hasn't been there, the U.S. will surely invite UN observers to visit the camp in order to observe that it is in concordance with all articles of the Geneva Convention, right?
