My friend Dave and I were joking around this weekend over my refusal to eat apple pie at the rehersal dinner Friday night, with him asking after my KGB case officer.
Still, it’s no joke that the US has decided to run detention centers in Eastern European countries. What’s more disappointing is the utter ridiculousness of the response from the Administration. While they defame all the ctiizens of this country by engaging in barbaric acts and demonstrating their utter lack of moral regard, they continue to try to drag others down with them. Take this response to the outrage generated in Europe over the recent announcement that the CIA had flown individuals being transported to the torture centers through European countries.
“The key point will be ‘We’re all in this together and you need to look at yourselves as much as us,’ ” one official said to the Washington Post, on condition of anonymity. “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
So our official response to the concerns raised in Europe is to insinuate they’re torturers and human rights abusers too? Wow, there’s a good case. Let’s not lead by example or anything.
And this line from the article is even better!
Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern told the New York Times that Ms Rice told him in Washington that she expected allies to trust that America does not allow rights abuses.
Honestly! Trust us. Just ingore everything you’ve heard over the past few years. Those secret prisons don’t exist. We didn’t abuse those detainees in Iraq. The photos were all made up.
What’s most disappointing is that, right or wrong, this sets America on the same level as all the leaders we argue should not be allowed on to the UN Human Rights commission, or that we otherwise pressure to be removed from power. We forfeit the moral high ground by engaging in activities that those people we claim are morally wrong engage in. We begin to look like those we argue against.
We can’t lead from a position of moral authority as long as these immoral goons are running amok.