Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Zell's outrage is itself an outrage

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

I’m counting down until November. Not because I’m excited about the Presidential election, but because the charade of Zell Miller’s run as Democratic senator from Georgia will be over. He’s been more of a shill for Bush and his administration than most people.

Sour grapes, you say? The man is speaking at a Bush campaign rally. What would the screaming heads of Limbaugh and O’Reilly have said if a Republican senator campaigned for Clinton or Gore?

Right now, I’m staring at a release from his office: “Finger-pointing, apologies over prisoner treatment only boost enemy,” and I’m shaking my head in disbelief. The release is excerpts from Miller’s recent statement on the Senate floor.

It begins, “Mr. President, here we go again, here we go again. Rushing to give aid and comfort to the enemy.”

Huh?

By speaking out against horrible actions, thinking that those who beat, humiliated and sodomized prisoners were wrong in what they did or thinking our government mishandled the situation, we’re giving aid and comfort to the enemy?

What would Miller have those of us who don’t just blindly accept all actions in Iraq do? Sit quietly and don’t worry about it? Perhaps we should just turn on “American Idol,” call in votes for Diana Degarmo and not even think about Iraq. It’s not worth it and the government will take care of everything, right? Trust your government.

Investigations into this scandal started in January and though this has only been on most Americans radar screens for a matter of weeks, you better believe people in the government knew about this.

“Of course, I do not condone all the things that went on in that prison, but I for one, Mr. President, refuse to join in this National Act of Contrition over it,” Zell said. “Those who are wringing their hands and shouting so loudly for ‘heads to roll’ over this seem to have conveniently overlooked the fact that someone’s head HAS rolled, that of another innocent American brutally murdered by terrorists.”

I don’t think anyone has overlooked the tragedy that befell Nicholas Berg. It has been all over the news and Internet and everyone is saddened by his death and his family’s loss.

If you really look at Miller’s quote though, it appears that he is using Berg’s death to score a point for his side. Saying, “See, you cry for these prisoners, these people who would have beheaded Berg if they weren’t in prison. But where are your tears for Berg, an American?”

Republicans have jumped all over the media, Democrats and anybody who has something negative to say about what’s going on in Iraq, stating that they are politicizing the war and using events for their own political purposes. They then turn around and use Berg’s death to politicize recent events and prove their point.

But what if Berg had not been beheaded? Do they then look for some other example that terrorists are bad?

We get that. We saw the planes hit the towers and the people flying the planes were Saudis and they were commissioned by al Qaida and not Iraq.

Not to go off a tangent, but just what was Berg thinking anyway? Why would anybody, not sent over to fight in the war, go to Iraq? It’s not safe. Anybody could tell you that. Reporters over there rarely leave the area around their hotel and countries with ambassadors over there have asked them to get out of the country because it’s not safe.

Again, it’s terrible that he got captured by terrorists and beheaded, but Iraq should be the last place on Earth anyone would want to go to. There’s a war going on. Duh. You don’t want to go vacation on the Gaza Strip, people don’t flock to Somalia, Bosnia or Ethiopia for fun and you should stay the heck out of Iraq for a while too.

“So I stand with Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma (a Republican), who stated that he’s ‘more outraged by the outrage’ than by the treatment of these prisoners,” said Zell in his conclusion.

Well, Zell, I’m outraged at your outrage at the outrage. People are free to speak their mind in this country, even you. I’m not even mad that you vote with Republicans on some issues.

I think going issue by issue takes a lot of integrity, but when it appears that you vote as a Republican on most if not all issues, and come out in favor of Bush being re-elected before the Democratic primaries were even underway, you are doing your party a great disservice.

That just showed everyone that you didn’t care who came out of the primaries or what they might have to offer as a potential candidate. You had already made up your mind and your constituents have to wonder if you weigh other issues like that.

If you disagree with Democratic policies, change them. Speak out like you have been, but how about being a leader instead of a critic? Lots of people are guilty of that, especially in politics. I guess I just expected more out of you.

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