November 8, 2005

I don’t know which was more embarrassing: Bush’s exclamation, while visiting Lula, that “wow, is Brazil big,” or Bush’s declaration, in Panama, that “we do not torture.”

How, then, does he account for the fact that two dozen detainees have been murdered by U.S. interrogators?

How, then, does he account for Abu Ghraib?

Or the recently revealed gulag archipelago that the CIA is running in Eastern Europe and Asia?

Or why, for that matter, is Vice President Cheney lobbying Congress to this day to permit the CIA to engage in “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.”

That’s torture, Bush, and your Vice President wants your government—our government!—to be able to keep doing it.

Bush’s explanation in Panama seems to be that whatever U.S. forces are doing is lawful, no matter what.

Said Bush: ”Any activity we conduct is within the law.”

What law is he talking about?

And he showed no appreciation for the grotesque violations of international law and U.S. treaties that people under his command have been committing.

“There’s an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again,” he said. “So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law.”

Either Bush is unaware of the torture that’s been going, just as he’s unaware of how big Brazil is, or he’s giving a wink and a nod to the torturers in his employ.