Friday, May 07, 2004

Bush's "apology"

In an article of about 25 paragraphs about the calls for Rumsfiend to resign, the Washington Post has this one line in paragraph eight:

From the White House, Rumsfeld's future appeared more secure. President Bush, after issuing a rare public apology during a Rose Garden appearance with Jordan's King Abdullah, called Rumsfeld "a really good secretary of defense" and said "he will stay in my Cabinet."

But what do you think the bold headline of this Rumsfeld article might be?

Bush Apologizes for Abuse of Prisoners

There's excellent journalism for you.

There's been a lot of chatter at the White House press briefings questioning why Bush won't apologize for the atrocities (which get called "abuses") at Abu Ghraib - in particular in the setting of the interviews he gave to two Arab newspapers. So I guess the Post decided to flash a headline that makes it appear he's actually done something right and noble and responsible to ease the public's perception (if indeed they might have been troubled). In fact, Google news has perpetuated this attempt at false Bush-shaping by having that headline as a prominent link on their front page today.

And let's look at that "apology" to King Abdullah of Jordan. From Bush's own slime-covered lips:

"I told him I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliations suffered by their families. I told him I was equally sorry that people who've seen those pictures didn't understand the true nature and heart of America," Bush said.
  article

Well done, your highness. Well done. Not a formal apology. Not to the Iraqis. Not to the Arab world. And definitely no apology for the acts of the U.S. military. I'm sorry some of you were offended, I'm sorry you were hurt, and I'm sorry you don't understand that I'm great and good.

Very well done, indeed.


Update: Here's Josh Marshall's view of the slimebucket's "apology":

Abdullah's an Arab. And he's from nextdoor to Iraq. And he was in town. Actually he was at my house. So I figured I'd apologize to him. How's that? Did I mention that I apologized to Abdullah?

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