Dark Bilious Vapors

Juan Cole mentions (as did Al Franken on today's O'Franken Factor) that George W. Bush went on a couple Arab satellite TV networks in order to try to do some damage control in the wake of the Abu Ghuraib prison abuse scandal. Of course, in keeping with everything else Bush has ever done, he had to go screw it up. First, he went on al-Arabibiya and al-Hurra but refused to do an interview with al-Jazeera, thus guaranteeing that he was going to limit the impact and reach of his message, since al-Jazeera is the leading Arab language satellite channel. And then, to add to his incompetence, the characteristic Bush inability to apologize kicked in, and while Bush mouthed platitudes about our sincerity in trying to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq, he refused to apologize on behalf of the United States or take responsibility for the incident. Quoth Professor Cole:

Since Bush did not apologize, did not take responsibility, did not make anyone else take responsibility, and just talked in a vague way about investigations, I doubt his message will resonate. Even pro-American Adnan Pachachi, who tried to put the best face on the matter, said that an apology would have been helpful.

Len on 05.05.04 @ 12:44 PM CST