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TechnographColumn: Taking turns
By Todd Swiss
Posted: 6/28/05 Section: Opinions
It seems that President Bush has not really made any outrageous or ridiculous comments lately, but Vice President Dick Cheney has certainly picked up Dubya's slack with his recent remarks in an interview with Wolf Blitzer. Cheney responded to questions on the war in Iraq and the prisoners being held at the infamous Guantanamo Bay facilities with rhetoric that has become all too common in Bush administration speeches and interviews.
Fresh off of criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, Cheney had the audacity to say that the prisoners have everything that they want and that they are practically living in paradise. Cheney's direct quote was:
"The treatment they're getting-they got a brand new facility down at Guantanamo. We spent a lot of money to build it. They're very well-treated down there. They're living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want."
Not only is this statement completely ridiculous, it is utterly false. From what I remember, these prisoners are not allowed to communicate with each other and only truly speak to interrogators. In addition, how does Cheney know what these people want? I am pretty sure they would rather be home with their families instead of in chains thousands of miles away without the ability to contact them. Speaking of chains, I am pretty sure these men would like to be free of them... but wait, don't they hate freedom? I guess that they are in heaven according to Dubya and company.
All of these things are debatable though, unlike what was revealed late Friday afternoon. A United Nations source revealed that the U.S. mission to the U.N. actually acknowledged that torture has taken place at Guantanamo Bay. How can our vice president explicitly say that the prisoners are being treated very well when the next day American officials admit that torture has taken place in this infamous prison? I refuse to believe that Cheney had no knowledge of such things.
See, the Bush administration has this funny little strategy that much of the American public has been falling for. They seem to deny, deny and deny until their lies have been hammered into our brains. Only then will they break the news to us in a very delicate manner. They have figured out that once a certain issue gets so much coverage that Americans grow tired of hearing about prisoners at Guantanamo Bay or the war with Iraq, they will stop caring. At this point, the Bush administration says "Whoops, we lied," and the American public says "God! Stop talking about the war, we don't care anymore!" The Bush administration then quickly switches focus to a new "threat" or the latest developments in their "search" for Osama bin Laden.
Fresh off of criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, Cheney had the audacity to say that the prisoners have everything that they want and that they are practically living in paradise. Cheney's direct quote was:
"The treatment they're getting-they got a brand new facility down at Guantanamo. We spent a lot of money to build it. They're very well-treated down there. They're living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want."
Not only is this statement completely ridiculous, it is utterly false. From what I remember, these prisoners are not allowed to communicate with each other and only truly speak to interrogators. In addition, how does Cheney know what these people want? I am pretty sure they would rather be home with their families instead of in chains thousands of miles away without the ability to contact them. Speaking of chains, I am pretty sure these men would like to be free of them... but wait, don't they hate freedom? I guess that they are in heaven according to Dubya and company.
All of these things are debatable though, unlike what was revealed late Friday afternoon. A United Nations source revealed that the U.S. mission to the U.N. actually acknowledged that torture has taken place at Guantanamo Bay. How can our vice president explicitly say that the prisoners are being treated very well when the next day American officials admit that torture has taken place in this infamous prison? I refuse to believe that Cheney had no knowledge of such things.
See, the Bush administration has this funny little strategy that much of the American public has been falling for. They seem to deny, deny and deny until their lies have been hammered into our brains. Only then will they break the news to us in a very delicate manner. They have figured out that once a certain issue gets so much coverage that Americans grow tired of hearing about prisoners at Guantanamo Bay or the war with Iraq, they will stop caring. At this point, the Bush administration says "Whoops, we lied," and the American public says "God! Stop talking about the war, we don't care anymore!" The Bush administration then quickly switches focus to a new "threat" or the latest developments in their "search" for Osama bin Laden.
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