Star Tribune Editorial:
Durbin's message/U.S. must end prisoner abuse June 21, 2005
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., set off a firestorm last week when he compared U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo to practices employed by Nazis, Soviets, Pol Pot and their ilk. His remarks were condemned by the White House, the Pentagon, the Christian Coalition, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Newt Gingrich (who called for his censure by the Senate) and by the entire right side of the talk radio/television/blog world. The heat got so bad that, late in the week, Durbin apologized if his remarks had been "misunderstood." They weren't, and Durbin should not have apologized.
Read more...
Vyan
Truth to Power
Continued..
Instead, the senator should have hit back hard, just as the Amnesty International did when its comparison of Guantanamo to the Soviet gulag was attacked. By caving in, Durbin did just what the orchestrated right-wing smear effort required to succeed: It made him the story rather than focusing further attention on the outrageous violations of international law and human rights being perpetrated in Guantanamo and elsewhere in the name of the American people.
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Durbin was spot on in his assessment of Guantanamo. That's why he was so roundly attacked. He told the truth. And his message is of vital importance; the United States is better than this.
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But instead of discussing what goes on at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and other prison camps, the right would prefer to get into a senseless argument about whether "we" are better than the Nazis or Saddam Hussein or the Soviets or Pol Pot or whomever a critic of Guantanamo might raise as a comparison. It's a tactic the group running Washington now has used again and again: They're quite deliberately changing the subject -- from Guantanamo to words spoken on the Senate floor.
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http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/5467045.html
I don't personally believe we should simply dump this responsibilty on Durbin. He took a stand and received some lumps, but we don't truly lose until Democrats - both in and out of the Government - fail to stand up with him.
Can we really be entirely surprised when he back-pedals, or seem terminally gun-shy about stepping up to the plate? They have to know that we have their back!
Durbin was indeed factually correct in his statements. It was the FBI who called it "Torture Techniques". It was the Red Cross, it was the Department of Defense - yet who is willing to stand up and defend Durbin?
We have to finally learn how this game is played. Republican regularly stand up and call Democrats and Liberals names all the time:
- Pat Robertson: Liberals are more dangerous than Al-Qaeda, Nazi Germany or the Civil War
- Michael Savage, who compared Senator John Edwards and philthrapist George Soros to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
- Pat Buchana: I'm comparing [Judge Greer's decision in the Schiavo Case] to a crime against humanity... When the German doctors committed those crimes in the 1930s, even before World War II, they were put on trial for crimes against humanity.
- Bill Frist : Democrats are attempting to assasinate Bush's nominees
- Joe Scarborough : Do [Democrats and Liberals] hate George Bush so much that they are cheering for Terri's death only because the president of the United States and his brother are fighting for Terri's life?
Too often we let the intensity of the comments obscure the legitimacy of the comments, just exactly like what occured with Howard Dean recently.
What the Republican manage to do is create a drumbeat of repetitive commentary. Whether by design or by simple osmosis, they use the resonance of the echo-chamber to make one outrageous comment some commonplace by having it repeated by so many sources.
It's just like when you're a kid, and you don't want someone else to eat your food so you SPIT in it. Those that don't know how to play the game shy away - those that do, stick their own finger in the food.
"Yeah, that's right - whatcha gonna do about it now?"
Vyan
Truth to Power