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Mon 10 May, 2004 03:17 pm
May 9, 2004
BY TERENCE HUNT
WASHINGTON -- In one of the darkest weeks of his administration, President Bush saw America's reputation sullied, the U.S. effort in Iraq damaged and his own campaign for re-election clouded.
And more bad news may be on the way.
While the world already has been horrified by pictures of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, the Pentagon warns there are many more photos and videos that have not been disclosed.
They show ''acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman,'' embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress.
From the White House to Capitol Hill, policymakers are worried that the United States faces lasting damage abroad -- particularly in the Middle East -- from the pictures of naked Arab men being tortured and humiliated by American soldiers, the same forces sent to Iraq to liberate the country from Saddam Hussein's torture and repression.
Analysts described the pictures as great recruiting tools for al-Qaida and other extremist groups and said they undermine America's claims to a moral high ground. Rumsfeld said the effect was ''radioactive.''
Bush, in his weekly radio address Saturday, said, ''They are a stain on our country's honor and reputation.'' He said the abuses were the work of a few and do not reflect the overall character of the 200,000 members of the U.S. military who have served in Iraq in the last year.
Six months from the November election, Iraq weighs heavily on the president.
April was the deadliest month yet for American soldiers in Iraq, and May is off to a bloody start.
On the diplomatic front, the administration does not know who will take power in Iraq from the United States in a June 30 hand-over.
Costs are soaring. The administration has sent Congress an unexpected $25 billion request for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Day after day, the extraordinary apologies from the president and his top deputies dominate the news.
Pollsters and presidential experts are scratching their heads over how the prisoner scandal will affect Bush's re-election hopes.
''There's such a big question mark there, it's unlike anything we've seen before,'' said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.
''The public is very critical of [Bush's] management of Iraq. They don't think he has a clear plan for bringing it to a successful conclusion, but a thin majority of the public has been hanging in with that it was the right decision to go to war,'' Kohut said. ''This could be the event which makes people say 'Oh, we did make a mistake.'"
Political scientist James Thurber of American University likened the Iraq images to the infamous Vietnam pictures of a naked young girl fleeing a napalm attack and a Viet Cong prisoner being executed on a Saigon street.
Referring to the new pictures, Thurber said, ''That's what we're going to remember about Iraq. It's just not going to go away. That may have a lasting and negative effect on his campaign. It certainly does right now, and I think you'll see it in the polls immediately.''
Support for Bush's handling of foreign policy and terrorism, usually his strongest issue, was at 50 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll Friday. That compares with 55 percent a month ago.
Lawmakers worried that the pictures would harm U.S. credibility for years, perhaps decades.
Splashed across front pages across the Middle East and around the world, the pictures may undermine ''the substantial gains toward the goal of peace and freedom in various operation areas of the world, most particularly Iraq,'' said Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Added Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.): ''This was a political and public relations Pearl Harbor.''
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-bush09.html
Silly me.
I thought that darkening shadow was a pair of 36D's peering over my shoulder...
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