Koran "Flushed"? Maybe; Our Constitution,
By President Bush, With Iraq War? Certainly
By Michael A. Peroutka
Centuries ago, the English clergyman and poet George Herbert, in his 1640 poem "Jacula Prudentum," gave us this good advice: "Whose house is of glass, must not throw stones at another." But, of course, some people, who do live in glass houses, do throw stones at others. A case in point: White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice have thrown some very big boulders at "Newsweek" magazine.
By now, most of us have heard or read about "Newsweek" magazine reporting, and then retracting, an anonymous source story which alleged that guards at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet in an effort to intimidate suspected terrorists. This report caused Muslims in Pakistan to riot killing at least 16 people.
Criticizing "Newsweek" for what the magazine now says was a story that cannot be substantiated, President Bush's press spokesman Scott McClellan has said this report "was wrong, has had serious consequences. People did lose their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged; there is lasting damage to our image because of this report. And we would encourage 'Newsweek' to do all that they can to repair the damage that has been done."
McClellan has also said "the report was used to incite violence by people who oppose the United States and want to mischaracterize the values and views of the United States of America." He says "our military goes out of their way to handle the Koran with care and respect….in fact, at Guantanamo, we have made sure that the detainees are able to worship freely, and that they are provided copies of the holy Koran."
Commenting on this same "Newsweek" report, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has called it "appalling" noting that it has created a "very major problem" for the U.S. in the Muslim world. She says this report was "not well-founded" and that "it's done a lot of harm."
Well, now. I do not doubt for a minute that everything said here by McClellan and Secretary Rice about this "Newsweek" report is true. But, they have no credibility at all when it comes to complaining about damage caused by erroneous information. They represent an Administration that repeatedly told us things that were false in order to justify our war against Iraq.
In his 2003 State of the Union address, Mr. Bush said: "Year after year, Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to build and keep weapons of mass destruction. But why? The only possible explanation, the only possible use he could have for those weapons, is to dominate, intimidate or attack. With nuclear arms or a full arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, Saddam Hussein could resume his ambitions of conquest in the Middle East and create deadly havoc in that region."
As the President's chief advisor on national security issues, Condoleeza Rice more than once warned that Saddam Hussein's "smoking gun" just might be "a mushroom cloud." The implication here is obvious. She was saying that Hussein had the capability to use nuclear weapons.
But, we now know that such talk was just that --- talk, and it was wrong. There has been no evidence to support these rationales for our war against Iraq, no evidence to show that Hussein had Weapons Of Mass Destruction. The only things that have been massively destroyed are the original rationales for this conflict. The old arguments for this conflict lie in rubble.
And Mr. Bush's war has resulted in the deaths of a lot more people than did this "Newsweek" article. Mr. Bush's war has killed more than 1,600 American troops and wounded more than 11,000. In addition, his war has killed tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and cost the American taxpayer more than $200 billion.
A magazine article can be retracted; Mr. Bush's war against Iraq cannot be. And by launching this undeclared and thus un-Constitutional war, our President has, in effect, flushed our Constitution down the toilet.
I wonder: Why aren't Americans as concerned about this as those rioting Muslims in Pakistan were about the treatment of the Koran?