Tuesday, March 25, 2003

The Hypocrisy Of Rumsfeld And The Press We do know that the Geneva Convention makes it illegal for prisoners of war to be shown and pictured and humiliated. And it's something that the United States does not do. And needless to say, television networks that carry such pictures are, I would say, doing something that's unfortunate. - Donald Rumsfeld, March 23, 2003 in a CNN interview.   Memory says, "I did that."  Pride replies, "I could not have done that."  Eventually memory yields. - Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil I know it's not just me who sees the sheer hypocrisy in this statement by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, right?  He's addressing the Al-Jazeera Arabic language television network's showing of American POWs and how that network had broadcast video of captured American soldiers.  He pointed out (correctly) that that sort of thing should not be done and went against the Geneva Convention.  But he also clearly declares that the United States doesn't do that sort of thing.  But what about CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, or any other American networks that continually broadcast video of Iraqi soldiers forced to kneel in the sand at gun point?  Aren't those soldiers being "pictured and humiliated," too?  Sure it's not to the same degree as what the Iraqi's did, but don't tell me that we wouldn't be upset if we saw the exact same footage being shown on CNN twenty times a day of Iraqi soldiers being taken prisoner if the roles were reversed and it were Iraqi soldiers pointing rifles at our troops, making them kneel in the sand, be handcuffed, and have cameras shoved in their faces. Now since this whole thing came up over the weekend, there has been a noticeable drop in the amount of footage of captured Iraqis (at least on the channels I watch), but no one has come out and said why.  Nor has it completely gone away. When I watched that interview, or any talking head on any network bemoaning the fact that the Iraqis had broken the Geneva Convention, I just wanted to throw up.  The fact is that we did it, too, and through the power of the American media, to a much wider extent.  Spliting hairs and saying that they did it worse is just trying to shift responsibilty off our own shoulders.  No one should show that type of footage of either side, plain and simple.  I for one will applaud the first American journalist or politician who owns up to that fact.  I just worry that no one will. 7:54:50 PM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.