politics

Bush's logic

Is this a joke?

Our president actually said, “I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they’re willing to know that this level of violence that they tolerate.” Besides the observation that Bush—once again—twists the English language into unimaginable fits of linguistic contortion, when did our grammatically-challenged president poll the Iraqis? What evidence does he present to support his assertion that the Iraqis, who have endured unimaginable hardship and death, inspired by the United States' invasion of the country, 'tolerate' the violence so rampant in their country? What evidence does he present that the Iraqis want to be 'free' as the United States defines 'free'? Judging by the Bush Administration's actions in the last six years, free might be a tenuous, fluid term.

One Johns Hopkins Unviersity study concluded that more than 600,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the United States' invasion.

“No question it’s violent. But, this report is one, they put in out before is,”—seque to a avuncular Dick Cheney tone—“the methodology is pretty well discredited.” Huh? Pray tell, what methodology were they using? Thought so.

According to Les Roberts, one of the co-authors of the study by Johns Hopkins University, who appeared on Democracy Now!, the methodology employed in the study is the same methodology employed by the United States government to estimate deaths after conflicts in Kosovo and Afghanistan. The federal government is spending millions to educate employees on the cluster methodology to measure mortality.

UNICEF employs the cluster survey approach to estimate deaths in poor and underdeveloped countries. The methodology is now considered a standard in the field of statistics. Yes, the methodology employed by John Hopkins is the same methodology employed by the United States government. But, then, Bush and Cheney never let facts or common sense cloud their pursuit of narrow ideology.

Ranks right up with the idea that suicides committed by enemy combatants held without charges in Guantonamo Bay are “acts of war,” somehow, perversely designed to “get” the United States, as one military official charged. Can we 'tolerate' that?

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posted by dq @ 12:33 PM