I find it fascinating that so many people in Washington and in the media wish to hold Bush and Rumsfeld responsible for the misconduct of a small number of soldiers at Abu Ghraib.

Inasmuch as the army was already in the process of doling out disciplinary action to the culprits, one has to wonder what more the president and the secretary of defense were expected to do.

First of all, there are any number of congressional committees that have oversight responsibilities when it comes to the military.  Why aren’t those senators and members of congress being held accountable?  And how is it that those bloodhounds in the media didn’t sniff out this story until two months after the military brass had announced it was conducting its own investigation?

Isn’t it ironic that the left wing media is always looking for an excuse to ferret out what they regard as either corruption or ineptitude among conservatives, although so many of the major scandals in recent years are to be found in their own ranks?  Let us not forget the plagiarism and other journalistic misdeeds committed by USA Today, the Nation and –gasp!—even the saintly New York Times.  But even worse than those transgressions was the admission by the ultra-liberal CNN that it neglected to report Saddam Hussein’s butchery lest he kick them out of Bagdad.  Which, to my mind, made this craven outfit an accessory to all the murders, tortures and rapes of his regime.

I also find it interesting that the left, which despised Harry Truman because, one, he dropped the A-Bomb on Japan, and, two, he confronted the Soviet Union, initiating the Cold War, now can’t stop quoting his statement about the buck stopping at his desk.  But even Truman wouldn’t have agreed that the misdemeanors committed by the prison guards tainted 150,000 of their fellow soldiers or proved that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was ill-advised.  And he certainly wouldn’t cry himself to sleep because now the Muslim jihadists won’t invite us to the prom.

There are those who contend that Iraq could turn into another Vietnam, and even I would have to admit they might be right.  And for the very same reason.  Call it a self- fulfilling prophecy.  History has strongly suggested that the anti-Vietnam War protestors did nothing except, one, help Nixon defeat Humphrey in 1968, and, two, convince the nearly-defeated Viet Cong that if they only kept fighting, America would eventually cave in.  Oddly enough, when the war finally wound down in 1973, the anti-war crowd, which included John (“I Committed War Crimes”) Kerry, actually had the gall to take credit.

If Bush and Rumsfeld are responsible for what transpired at Abu Ghraib, why aren’t all the other politicians being asked to resign for all the terrible things that occur under their collective watch?

For instance, why isn’t Ted Kennedy, the Chappaquiddick Kid, being asked to vacate the senate for the rapes and murders being committed every single day in Massachusetts?  I mean, what has he done about them?  Has he even apologized?

Why isn’t San Francisco’s scofflaw mayor, Gavin (The Marrying Man) Newsom, being drummed out of office?  And how about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton?  After all, I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that far nastier things occur every night in New York’s Attica State Prison than the humiliations suffered by the murderous Islamics incarcerated in Abu Ghraib.

Imagine a political party so deficient in decency and basic principles that it looks to the likes of Ted Kennedy, who left a young woman to drown; Hillary Clinton, who blatantly lied about her daughter’s whereabouts on 9/11; and Robert Byrd, former member of the Ku Klux Klan; for its moral authority.

Don’t be confused, my friends, it’s never the buck that stops at the desks of these self-righteous, second-rate, left wing partisans.  It’s the bucks.

Burt Prelutsky

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©2004 Burt Prelutsky

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