US still has moral authority: Rice

From correspondents in Berlin
17may04

CONDOLEEZZA Rice today called the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops a "stain on the United States", but denied the scandal had undermined Washington's moral authority in the Middle East.

The US national security adviser was asked in an interview for German television about the impact the photographs of humiliated Iraqis in American custody had had on the US image worldwide.

She replied: "I simply don't accept that America has lost moral authority.

"Let's be realistic about it - human beings do bad things. No one expects that human beings are always going to behave in ways we would like them to behave.

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,9582692%255E1702,00.html

...playing "fetch the bone".


{{{{Shudder}}}} :puke:

it makes it so!

you can't undermine something that no longer exists.

Extolling the concept of virginity. She's worthless scum.

or any morality to speak of.

which can be found at the tip of a ballistic missile?? or the moral authority majority of the world ascribe to peaceful, non-bullying countries.

If the pedophilia, and it's subsequent cover-up, did not cause legions of Roman Catholics to leave the church and question its moral authority, why should the prisoner abuse be seen as anything different?


Don't mean to offend, but the two situations seem similiar, particularly in light of Rice's comments.

why does that mean that they have moral authority. also how many of the people who are still part of the catholic church stay simply because they know of no other paths.

All Moral Authority resides within....IMHO

absofrickkinlutly the best line of the week. i think this was even better than the deaf squires harmless pranks quote.

No one expects that human beings are always going to behave in ways we would like them to behave.

God forbid the rest of the world should lower itself to behave as does the _{Bush administration.} Then the world as we know it would be terminally, and hideously diseased.

direction of GWBush and WH attorney Gonzales have already admitted complicity when:

Asked about a report in the US magazine The New Yorker that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had approved a secret program encouraging the abusive interrogation methods used at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, Ms Rice said she would withhold judgment, but there would be a thorough probe.

So, seeing as how it was all imaginary all along, I guess it would technically be impossible to "undermine" it.





http://www.wgoeshome.com

The US may torture its prisoners and clap the guy responsible, Rummy, on the back for doing a good job, but hey, them Aaaarabs behead people. :eyes:

That is what the phony beheading shit was all about: acted as a political counterweight. The Bush fascists are trying to regain the moral highground in an atomosphere of moral rot.

even if the government has lost it. But today I heard a clip of Micheal Savage saying that he believes we should take 1000 Iraqi prisoners and kill them. We should take a stick of dynamite, stick it into one of their "orifices," and throw them out an airplane at 30,000 feet.

What a humanitarian!

We, the People of the United States, still have the Moral Authority. As far as I'm concerned, the word MORAL should never come out of her mouth.

I'd like to ship him and the rest of fascist enablers along with the fascists over to Iraq and drop them off.

I am in Canada, and we have hand wringing debates about the media when Don Cherry (a hockey commentator) implies that European hockey players are less than manly. Does this Savage person really say things that hateful and bigoted? If so, I am amazed, particularly after all the morality talk regarding Janet Jackson's breast.

I heard a clip of it on the Guy James Show yesterday. He called them sub-human. You can here it yourself - Guy James' show is archived at www.whiterosesociety.org. Guy played the clip toward the end of the May 15 program. You won't believe your ears.

Sex = VERY bad, shameful, not to be seen by children

Violence = OK, doesn't harm children at all, unless it's a kid shooting up a school.

It doesn't make any sense to me. To me, if there is one thing that a child SHOULD learn, it's love.. not hate and violence. So, yes, our Right Wing morality police can completely freak out and tut-tut about Janet Jackson's breast corrupting our precious little children while at the same time taking these same children to see Matrix Revolutions.

:shrug:

The implications of the seemingly throw away phrase strike me....

Moral authority.

(and the Republicans used to complain about those academia liberals and their Ivory Tower view of the world.)

she is such a asskissing, mealymouthed, talkoutofbothsidesofherneck, lying, mean, evil, smirking, suckup, disgracetohergender POS I swear!

Interesting how this whole episode has invited comparisons between the US and Saddam

she has no authority to speak for our country.

That way we can throw our moral authority all over the place.

reality:

"I simply don't accept...."

If it something that reflects badly upon them and is the truth, they simply don't accept it and expect the US public to do the same.

<The program got approval from President Bush (news - web sites)'s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), and Bush was informed of its existence, the officials told Hersh.>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=536&e=4&u=/ap/20040516/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_prison_abuse_rumsfeld

In a German television interview, Rice also said the abuse of inmates by American troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (news - web sites) had not undermined U.S. moral authority.


Rice dismissed a report in The New Yorker magazine that the U.S. government, including herself, had approved a secret plan that encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners to obtain intelligence about the insurgency.


"As far as we can tell, there's really nothing to the story," Rice said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=536&e=2&u=/ap/20040516/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/germany_us

Another artful non-denial.

Administration began operating in secrecy, planning a pre-emptive war against Iraq, trashing the environment, and dissing international treaties and laws and the UN. Lucky for us our nationally-elected and highly-appointed officials are personally so moral, ethical, and above board, else we might be in real deep do-do.

"DO TOO have moral authority!"

That's pretty much what she's reduced to.

Pitiful and incompetent.

Deny it all you will, the reality is there for all to see.

...explaining that it doesn't matter what she "accepts" but rather what the Iraqis think.

Your Regime has NO MORALS!!!!!

our might makes us morally authoritative...

:puke:

At least there was a discussion following that interview, featuring a German conservative being taken apart by a NATO-General and the French-German Green Daniel Cohn-Bendit. That made the show, as a whole, bearable.

Rice apparently will be in Berlin for the whole week, brokering deals for the middle-East.

from the days of Indian slaughter and slavery to the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan. The US will never have the opportunity to ride that high horse in spite of millions of who believe it is possible.

As an African American and a disabled Vietnam Vet who was drafted,68-70,I am truly ashamed of these two,Condi and Collin,who has sold their soul to the devil.
They have let America and the world down,instead of being an example like M.L. King to bring the world together,they have aided and abetted,this unelected and fraudulent,wanna be emperor,G.W.Bush and his warmongering Gang whose greed and unbridled arrogance,has brought the world closer to disaster than any other in our history.
It makes me laugh when I hear anyone in this Bush admin talk about morality,they have none,and even though they like to talk about God they are totally devoid of any spirituality.
I am a non believer,but I swear I live a more Christian life than any of the warmongers,including those who talk to their god regularly,and I only attend Churches when invited like christenings,weddings and funerals.
This admin including Condie,and Collin,are both morally,and Spiritually bankrupt.

target a demographic. Period. Which is what happens when there is an MBA in the white house.

Regarding Condi's comments, when did the U.S. EVER have moral authority? Was it during the genocide of native americans? Or during slavery? Or before1920 when women couldn't vote? Or when we dropped the A-bomb on Japan?

I don't really understand that assertion. The U.S. needs a twelve step program so it can focus on denial and rationalization. All this "moral authority" b.s. just means we're fake christians and we think that justifies EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING we do, because our god is the real one and yours isn't.

I can't wait til our nation grows up and stops using god to justify heinous atrocities. So we can be more like a real democracy and less like an islamic fundamentalist state. Right now we are two peas in a pod with the terrorists. Just because we commit attrocities across the ocean doesn't make them any less atrocious

:hi:

Hahahahah!!!

She must be getting paid pretty well to completely sell her soul. She's an historic failure as a national security adviser.

you'd think just about everybody would view Condi as a player of content-free word games: she can run her mouth without saying anything until all the clocks run out.

Fucking shitbag.

I, for one, look forward to the day when, after a fair trail, she and her fellow traitors are hung in the public square in D.C.

Punishing their treason - now THAT would be a way to regain our moral authority.

It must be the greasy sauce. Rice is completely processed, all nutrients and fiber removed, past the "credible until" date.

We're better off eating the cardboard box.

To paraphrase Kimmitt, go down another aisle and make a wiser food choice if you want to know the truth.

Protests--too loudly, anyone.

and we've still got plenty of that.

I needed a good laugh; thank you, Lady Oil.