Bush says Abu Ghraib was biggest mistake of Iraq war

Bush took NO leadership on this issue-even 'allowing' to Cheney to lobby to the Congress at the time of McCain bill. Shameful. He is counting on people to have short memories!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060526/wl_uk_afp/usbritainiraq_060526005623;_ylt=AqX5qjTowDeHdREuiB0ExVWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-

Bush says Abu Ghraib was biggest mistake of Iraq war

1 hour, 38 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) -
President George W. Bush said that the
Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal was the "biggest mistake" made by the United States in Iraq.


Speaking after a summit with British Prime Minister
Tony Blair, Bush said "I think the biggest mistake that's happened so far, at least from our country's involvement, is Abu Ghraib. We've been paying for that for a long period of time."

The Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal that broke with the release of photos of Iraqi prisoners being sexually humiliated at the Baghdad prison drew international criticism for US forces.

Bush said he also regretted some of his tough talk during the war campaign such as his "bring them on" challenge to Iraqi insurgents in July, 2003.

Blair said that the way the international coalition embarked on the "deBathification" of Iraq after the ousting of
Saddam Hussein as president had been the biggest mistake he had seen.

:grr:

The biggest mistake in any war is starting it.

That means I was thinking the exact same thing.

:hurts:

even at the head of the line, Buster.

No Abu Ghraib is just the tip of the iceberg, of a pattern of criminal acts done by a group of thugs in and out of uniform (mercenaries) running wild.

Pictures like this are forcing home the point that rustic thugs no better than Amon Goethe are running wild

It's one thing to know that babies and children are being killed--it's something else entirely to see it (and to be there? Who could ever be the same again?). What must that be like, to bundle up those tiny lifeless bodies?

Horrors like this are directly due to the total lack of planning and total lack of competence by the people running this war. WHY aren't we seeing pictures like this? Why aren't they being shown on the evening news? I'm sure they're all over the media in every other country, yet Americans are left wondering why we are hated all over the world because our news is censored (whether self-censored or not). If this photo were ever allowed to be on the front page of people's morning newspapers....

The torture, abuse and rape? Just ok, since Rummy and Gen. Miller approved it anyway.

It's the fact that they got caught that he regrets.

It's all in the parsing...

You're absolutely right. Doing bad is okay, unless there are personal consequences.

Ummm, Asswipe amundo, do you ever think about the people who have been killed because of your bullshit decisions?

(ha! kidding!) I think he meant that the leak of the Abu Ghraib photographs was the biggest mistake.

I can't see a monkeyman like that considering rampant torture and murder of Muslims to be a mistake. Bet he's proud of his boys and girls.

the war was the mistake.

Although, if we sort out your role in 9-11, they might prove to have been your biggest Boo Boo.

Whoops, that was his greatest accomplishment as President, I stand corrected...

someone decided that this was the right PR move.

assholes. if he really regreted it, he would resign and have charges pressed against himself, cheney, rumsfeld and gonzales for starters.

As to the "Abu Graib prison abuse scandal"....

It is a scandal when you have consensual sex with an intern.

Msongs is right in stating that what took place at Abu Graib were crimes NOT a mistake.

The phrase "Abu Graib prison abuse scandal" should read as "The criminal prison abuse at Abu Graib" IMHO.

But firstly comes his preemptive invasion of Iraq based on lies.

Any way we look at it, allowing the attacks on 9/11 to occur while ignoring multiple clear warnings that they were impending was either gross incompetence or something worse.

9/11 was the best thing that ever happened to Bush.

Without that he could not have got the pre-written "anti terror" legislation rushed through parliament.

Without that he might not have got enough people to back his oil wars.

This is what Buschco have achieved with 9/11. They reconstructed America, treating it with less respect than they would accord a toxic waste dump. They were left free to milk resources all around the world to fill their own pockets, and to commit the biggest thefts in recorded history: the theft of gold bars from beneath the world trade centres and the theft of billions from federal reserves.

Now that m/f gets away with changing every law he does not like After it's gone through parliament, and saying that he is entirely above the law. Once a country's leader is above the law, that country is no longer a democracy, it is a dictatorship.

Someone has set up us the bomb, Yardwork, and I hear CATS from Zero One laughing: "all your base are belong to us".

This is what's going on behind chimpy's oft commented on smirk.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us.

Someone Sent Us Up The Bomb!

And how do we know it still isn't going on?

:headbang:
rocknation

July of 2004: "We will not allow cameras any longer at Abu Ghraib prison".

Case closed.

Didn't Nero signal to the reporters that the press conference was just another act of his?

Nothing else comes close.

What Bush means is that Abu Ghraib coming to light was the biggest mistake, not the treatment of the prisoners.

Wrong, yes.
Stupid, yes.
But 100% intentional, just like Gitmo.
Abu Ghraib is what Bush is all about.

ousted? I guess he is saying that the way Saddam had structured the Baathist state is the only
way ANYONE could have administered a government in Iraq, including he and Junior?

Blair and Bush both just circle-jerk each other with words.

Let God forgive you, I don't have to.

Fucking two time loser.

She should have pushed him off and gone to sleep that night................

I don't want to say anything bad, but she threw away the kid and kept the afterbirth. Sorry if you read this on an empty stomach.

act of 'admitting' their 'mistakes' is nothing more than an attempt to win back support for their blood fest! I feel nothing but contempt for these two who should be on trial for their crimes against humanity!

....certainly not Chaney, Rummy & Gonzalez.

Until then, the mistake continues.

when I caught that big ol' fish!

will eat this up though. They "Chris Matthews" wants to give him credit for being candid. That is total bullshit. Watch the tape again, if you can stomach it, before he makes the statement he looks up in the air as if asking GOD for permission to speak, and then after his attempt at being a human being he flashes this shit eating grin at the front row. Just like everything else this was a stunt. If only CNN had cut to him practicing early we could have saw the man behind the curtain.

is the inprisonment of the chain of command of Abu Ghraib. The idea that a group of junior NCO's and Specialist Fours engaging in this disgrace without the knowledge of of senior NCO's and the officers is total BS, if PFC Lynndie England deserves three years for her role then Brigadier General Karpinski deserves 50 years.

If any "mistake" was critical to the crimes of Abu Ghraib, it was sending General Sanchez straight from Guantanamo to Iraq to spread their insidious torture policy.

Please stop dissing people who don't deserve it, there's a major interview with Janet K. (vanity fair? not sure of source) but she breaks it down as to what went on and how she was effectively locked out of her own command's prison. Naturally, since she was effectively lacking in culpability, she was busted in rank and forced to retire.

Blaming the Innocent is practically policy at BushCo.

Sanchez, as far as I know, was not at Guantanamo. Or did I miss something? (From what I've learned, Jeffrey Miller was sent to Iraq to "Gitmo-ize" intelligence gathering from the Iraqi detention system.)

I could be wrong, I do not have the best memory in the world, but I thought it was Sanchez who was behind the Gitmo torture strategy, then put his finger in the Abu Ghraib "funhouse." He was subsequently promoted, so he must be guilty of something!

Any good fact-checkers out there?

Oh, NOW he can think of mistakes that he made! ;-) I guess he can admit to a few mistakes now that he doesn't have to face the electorate. Frankly, I believe that it takes a courageous leader (unlike Bush) to be willing to admit mistakes and be willing to accept the consequences AFTER they happen not years down the road when they don't have to worry about re-election.

people was the biggest mistake of the war is what he is saying; the horrible torture of human beings was not the mistake - but getting caught at it, and the subsequent negative PR, is what the mistake was.

Republicans are just totally such despicable human beings. They are nothing but conscienceless nazis wrapped in very ugly shades of red, white, and blue.

They are everything that is wrong with America.

Bush's biggest mistakes seem to be with "vocabulary" (bring it on, dead or alive, etc).

not to mention the insincerity. The only reason is is saying these things is because of the 06 election and the poll numbers.

I'd be typing for the next 10 years.

It's ha-a-a-ard being president.

He knows who attacked us! He knows! Smoke 'em out. Dead or alive. Shock and awe. Don't forget Poland.

dog and pony show yesterday was nothing more that eyewash for the unthinking faithful followers. One would have to ignore a hell of a lot of contradicting actions to think that anything believable was said by either of those two.

not that we did it.

The telling phrase was "we've been paying for that for a long time." He doesn't care that it was WRONG, or what the VICTIMS paid -- only that it's cost him bad publicity.

It's been a bumpy ride
But putting that aside
I'm speaking now forthrightly
Don't think i took it lightly

Sorry ‘bout the prisoners
Sorry they got raped
Sorry they got tortured
Sorry it got taped

Sorry it was evil
But they're the evil doers
Sorry the next photo
Might upset our viewers

Believe me when i say
The apology's sincere
I'm awfully, awfully sorry
For that broomstick up their rear

Chorus
Boo hoo, i made a boo boo
Uh oh, i did a no no
The very latest thing
Is apologizing
So i'm sorry
I'm really really sorry

Sorry for the sex crimes
Sorry we got caught
Murder's not permitted?
I'm sorry, i forgot

Sorry it was evil
Though deep inside we knew it
It didn't seem so bad
When we got someone else to do it

Those darned humanitarian
Do gooders are aghast
I heard that that convention
In geneva was a blast

Chorus
Boo hoo, i made a boo boo
Oopsy, i made a poopsy
The very latest thing
Is apologizing
Stuff happens
Hey, i'm really really sorry

Don't blame the attack dogs
I'm sorry they got loose
Blame it on the pictures
Not on the abuse

Americans aren't like that
Because we stand for justice
Guantanamo's not like that
Sorry, don't you trust us?

Sorry that the think tank
Didn't think the war plan through
Sorry if you're dead
How can we make it up to you?

Chorus
Boo hoo, i made a boo boo
Uh oh, i did a no no
The very latest thing
Is apologizing
So i'm sorry
I'm really really sorry

- Wayne Lammers & Pete Levin

"It's important for the American people to know that politics isn't going to make the decision as to the size of our force level."

Politics decides everything in a non-dictatorship, George.

and Abu Ghraib is still open for business, and they continue to render innocent people to other locations worldwide.

Way too little, way too late.

Hmmmm.

It was a rehearsed answer. If he believed that it was his "biggest" mistake...then shut it down. It's that simple.

sentences that Abu Ghraib was a big mistake -

BUT, there was no admission in that statement that HE had anything to do with that mistake. And I'm sure that had anyone asked him what role he played in it, he would have done whatever he could to distribute the blame.

I don't credit him in the least with admitting a mistake, because as far as he's concerned, for public consumption it wasn't HIS mistake.

Isn't this still something the administration refuses to accept responsiblity for? Wasn't it just "the actions of a few"? Maybe I missed something... Any help?

Also, I love how he says "We did not find the weapons of mass destruction that we ALL believed were there." He gives a quick look up and around and does his little-boy listen-I-said-something-smart face. When he says "we ALL", who do you think he means, huh? "We ALL" in this country? Or "we ALL" in his Cabinet and family? Or is he just trying to implicate the rest of us, because none of us believe he truly thought there were any WMDs?

And, the article is truly heartening. The new Iraqi PM says that Iraqi forces will be "ready to take over security duties by the end of 2007". Well, we can all rest easy then - war's almost over!

PS: Is his slurring getting worse???

Mea culpas only have the gravitas and potential for the forgiveness inherent to abject heartfelt apology if three criteria are well-served:

1) The admission of mistake is directly PERSONAL.
2) The admission of mistake is TIMELY.
3) The admission of mistake is an acknowledgement that WHAT CAN BE CORRECTED, WILL BE CORRECTED.

How Bush's admissions fail the test:

1) The admission of mistake is oblique and impersonal. In fact to hear the phraseology, one would guess that these mistakes were countrywide. Never does he use "I" or "my Administration" or some other personalization. No, the United States made mistakes. It stops just short of the hey-this-shit-happens weak-kneed "mistakes were made." No, Georgie Porgie puddin' an' pie, "we" made no mistakes. We can't make mistakes like that... we aren't in the position to. You, on the other hand...

Well, we'll call it a "wea culpa" instead.

In fact the only time he's regretted anything personal was the "bring 'em on" chest-beating he did, and I have a feeling that he only regrets the result, not the chest-beating.

2) How long's it been since these events have transpired? 'Nuff said.
3) Admission of a mistake is nothing without an examination of corrective measures, IMHO, especially when the person who created the whole mess is still in a position to do something about it. We're still going to be there a while (i.e. until the Iraqis can govern themselves without our oversight and support, i.e. prolly never, at least to "our" satisfaction, anyhoo).

Personal note to George W. Bush, vis-a-vis the remark he made about politics not dictating how and when we leave Iraq...

Listening to the voice of the people ain't politics, stupid, it's good gummint.

he got caught and now he`s SO sorry. he could care less what anyone thinks but he`s been told that the republicans are going to lose the house and there`s a good chance his government will collapse under threat of impeachment

Where we do practically the same things? Things that blur the line between what is torture and what is acceptable. Things that definitely cross that line.

Sure, "we" don't torture...but we know some people who will!

So it's not the principle of violating human rights that's the mistake, it's that they got caught.

Was going to war in Iraq in the first place.

:grr: