Can't Spin This (5/19/04)
by Dean Hartwell
Humorist James Boren once said, “When in doubt, mumble.” Republicans say, “When in doubt, spin.”
When news came out in November 2001 that Albert Gore had received more votes in Florida than President George W. Bush in the 2000 Presidential Election, the Republicans went into spin mode. The results of the election no longer mattered, they said. They urged us to get behind the leader of the free world in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
When the economy continued to be sour throughout the midterm elections of 2002, President Bush listened to strategists who told him to run against the terrorists and downplay the economy. This spin helped Republicans take back the Senate and maintain control of the House.
When it finally dawned on most people in the United States that there really were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Bush conveniently forgot that he had made that assertion. He focused instead on reminding people as to what a terrible dictator Saddam Hussein had been and blamed the information on weapons of mass destruction on intelligence.
Spin, spin and more spin. The Republicans have done their best to put the best possible face upon problems they have encountered during the Bush Administration. But now they run into a mess that no amount of spinning will overcome: the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
What can they say about the fact that the Red Cross brought it to the attention of the Administration back in January? They certainly can’t spin this by saying they did not know about the problem. They can’t blame it on bad information, for the Red Cross reports turned out to be true. And they certainly can’t blame it on the public, which wants the truth about these revelations.
President Bush has appeared to be contrite over what has happened. He has apologized to the King of Jordan. He has openly deplored the torture and mistreatment inflicted by some of our soldiers. This talk amounted to some level of taking responsibility for the abuse, quite the opposite of spin.
But the President must act in a way that shows he will not tolerate any more mistreatment by members of our armed forces. The facts of the situation have become clear enough to make obvious what action the President should take.
A recent New Yorker column by Seymour Hersh places the blame for the torture squarely on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (The New Yorker - "The Gray Zone"). Rumsfeld’s Pentagon operation “encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq.”
Bush should ask Rumsfeld to resign. If he doesn’t, Bush should fire him.
Someone must pay for this mess. Otherwise we send a message to other countries that we do not care about ethics. Then they may do the same to our prisoners. Or behead another United States citizen. Something’s got to give. There is no other way to spin it.