Der Spiegel: Excesses of Sex and Violence

[Kellanved]

Worldwide indignation over the torture scandal has placed the Bush administration under pressure. The President is forced to issue a public apology, and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld falters. The smug superpower is on the brink of a moral and political catastrophe.

Every American president knows the power of images. The toppling of Saddam's statue in Baghdad was the epitome of quick victory in Iraq. The messy post-war conflict, which seems to have no end, has now found its own symbol - the hooded man wrapped in black cloth, standing on a box, his hands and genitals tied with cables.
...
Perhaps Bush already intended to apologize for the atrocious incidents in Abu Gharib prison near Baghdad in his two ten-minute interviews with Arab television networks. But somehow the question never came up, and at first he was unable to find words of regret on his own. The next day, he tried to make amends during a press conference with Jordanian King Abdullah II: "I am sorry for the humiliation suffered by Iraqi prisoners and their families."

...
In essence, everything Bush has done since he announced a year ago that the war was over has failed. The reason for going to war, Saddams alleged weapons of mass destruction, has dissipated. Nowadays, no one mentions the noble wartime objective of bringing democracy to the Middle East. And exactly to whom power in Iraq is to be transferred on June 30 is anyone's guess.
...
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/english/0,1518,299193,00.html

[skooooo]

1. He gave 2 ten-minute interviews?

Huh -- you'd think that would have cleared all this up, now wouldn't you??!