Please file this under "Nothing New to See Here":
A former Afghan police colonel gave a graphic account in an interview this week of being subjected to beating, kicking, sleep deprivation, taunts and sexual abuse during about 40 days he spent in American custody in Afghanistan last summer. He also said he had been repeatedly photographed, often while naked.
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"They were taunting me and laughing and asking very rude questions, like which animal did I like having sex with, and which animal do you want us to bring in for you to have sex with," he said of his time in Gardez.
"They were mimicking the sounds of a sheep, a cow and a donkey," he said, "and asking which one I would like to have sex with. They kept insisting, and they were kicking me so much that eventually I said a cow."
And don't forget the standard:
More than once, he said, soldiers inserted their fingers into his anus. He said one had touched his penis and asked, "Why is this unhappy?"
Man, those six or seven schmucks who are going to take the fall for an entire nation's worth of incompetence in Iraq were really busy. I mean, how did these six of seven bad individuals, who by the way partook in a totally isolated incident which in no way reflects gross, sytemic negligence and sanctioned abuse, get all the way to Afghanistan to stick their fingers in some dude's anus, and then all the way back to Iraq in time for their court martial? Wow. You really have to congratulate those six or seven isolated individuals, who are in-no-way-representative-of-larger-and-massive-brutality, for their skill in pulling off such feats of logistical complexity.
Oh, there are no pictures of this. So because we're functionally illiterate, you'll never hear about this again.
Now I'm skeptical of "We've really turned the corner now he's on the run!" type proclamations. Still, we're starting to see a really serious divide in the GOP over this issue. On the one hand, you have jackasses like, James Inhofe (R-grease monkey from Oklahoma) who are "outraged at the outrage" over the prisoner abuse story. Translation: "This is not a big deal fuck those guys they deserved it we're still number one I want to lick George Bush's nutsack." Man, Inhofe. Learn how to use a period, dude. Also Don Rickels, I mean Don Nickels, the other jackass from Oklahoma, talking about how "people are overreacting." Look, Pickles. I mean, shit. NICKLES! People are just starting to react. On the other hand, you have Lindsey Graham, Geroge Will, Mona Charen, David Brooks, and a whole host of other politicians and commentators, who though normally willing to follow W. to the grave, are now subtley and not so subtley distancing themselves from this whole Iraq schwag. Yeah, schwag is a word around here. You know what they say about those proverbial rats and the proverbial sinking ship...time to get yourself out of the fucking proverb. Or something.
Personally, I'm content to divide the mob, let the stragglers flee, then charge and pick off the main, hobbled force. Then, burn the village. Proverbially speaking, of course.
Posted by mike at May 12, 2004 11:26 PM