For those of you who get upset when I call the odious George Galloway a lying sack of shit, you will be happy to know that your hero is busy cozying up to another dictator:
British Member Parliament George Galloway, who has acquired an international status on issues such as arguing against the US-UK lead sanctions that crippled Iraq during the 1990s where Galloway contributed humanitarian help to Iraqis, arrived Damascus last night in a visit to Syria to deliver a lecture at al-Assad Library on justice in the new world order.
Galloway, who opposed the war by the US and the UK against Iraq, has been outspoken on Arab and international causes of justice. His visit comes upon an invitation of Speaker of Parliament, Mahmoud al-Abrash. Galloway is scheduled to be hosted by the Syrian television to talk about latest Arab and international developments.
Probably their to praise their human rights as vastly superior to the United States and Britain. What, with Bush and Cheney and everything.
(via Red Hot)
ppGaz
Yeah, but it was fun watching him make fools out of the Lying Sack of Shit brigade in DC a few months ago. I mean, Congress.
This guy is a pro, and they are just dilettantes.
Stormy70
In the future, we can refer to him as George Galloway – SOS.
Brad R.
I won’t defend Galloway (he’s Britain’s answer to Ramsey Clark), but…
Probably their to praise their human rights as vastly superior to the United States and Britain. What, with Bush and Cheney and everything.
Hey, if Middle Eastern tyrannies are good enough to use for extraordinary rendition…
Geek, Esq.
Galloway can be described as coming from the progressive wing of the Baathist party.
Sojourner
The US is hardly in a position to mock, given its record of getting in bed with anyone believed to be useful to US/corporate interests.
Let’s not forget our special friendship with Hussein during the ’80’s.
BinkyBoy
I prefer to remember our exciting rollercoaster ride with Osama, it brings a much warmer feeling to my heart.
Oh, thats just indigestion. Never mind.
demimondian
Sojourner:
I am not the US — I am a citizen of the US. I resisted Reagan’s Central American adventures by participating in the Sanctuary movement. I worked to end Apartheid in South Africa. I resisted, and resist, the continued illegal imprisonm…err, I mean “detention”…of prisoners of war in Guantanamo, however disgusting and loathesome the “detainees” are, because I hold my government to a higher standard than I would a con-man on the street.
You know what? I have no problem recognizing that George Galloway, MP, is a Purulent SOS, in the fine tradition of other great demagogues.
neil
Pretend I don’t know anything about George Galloway… how did the excerpt you pasted demonstrate that he is cozying up to dictators or praising Syrian human rights? Just because he’s going there and giving a talk? Didn’t Condi do that just a couple of weeks ago?
I need more here.
Geek, Esq.
Giving a lecture on justice at the al-Assad library is like giving a lecture on tolerance at the David Duke center.
HH
Condi went to Lebanon to criticize Syria, actually. I’m sure we will see similar criticism from Gorgeous George, right?
neil
Is it wrong to hope that someday there will be lectures on tolerance given at the David Duke center?
TallDave
HOW DARE YOU impugn our excrement by comparing it to George Galloway??
TallDave
Let’s not forget our special friendship with Hussein during the ‘80’s.
Mostly hype. It wasn’t very special or very friendly. Hussein got 99% of his arsenal from France, Russia, Germany, etc. And we’re not talking chump change here — at one point in the 1980s, Iraq was the world’s biggest arms importer.
Mike
“Sojourner Says:
The US is hardly in a position to mock, given its record of getting in bed with anyone believed to be useful to US/corporate interests.
Let’s not forget our special friendship with Hussein during the ‘80’s.”
I know the Moonbats always enjoys saying “Well America sucks too, blah, blah, blah, nothing new there, nothing original. But we’re starting to learn our lessons.
Galloway never did. He should have studied history and learned more about the stellar career of Neville Chamberlain. Appeasement is for cowards, nothing more.
Kimmitt
It doesn’t. Cole’s just making stuff up on this one.
The Disenfranchised Voter
Agreed. It is disheartening to see John acting like the blind Republicans he use to criticize.
Bob
Wait a second here. We’re pulling people off the street and sending them to, among other places, Syria. You know, extraordinary rendition. John Cole, you can’t be saying that the Administration’s partner in this war on terror, Syria, has human rights problems?
Look, when Monzer al-Kassar, an in-law of the Assads, was the top heroin smuggler through the Bekaa Valley back in the late eighties, he was just jake with Reagan-Bush I because he was also part of the Iran-contra weapons dealings.
By the way, Ramsey Clark, as LBJ’s Justice guy, interferred with investigations into all those political assassinations back in the sixties. As far as I know, Galloway hasn’t done anything more than made that Senator Coleman from Minnesota look like a fool.
Sojourner
And your evidence for this is…
Sojourner
I don’t think America sucks. I just have higher standards for this country than you do. I don’t want anyone to say America is not as bad as X…. I don’t want anybody to even think to compare America to X. Take the case of torture. I’ve heard arguments ad nauseum that America doesn’t treat its detainees as bad as Hussein did. That’s not good enough. I don’t want anyone to even think about comparing America with Hussein.
TallDave
I’ve heard arguments ad nauseum that America doesn’t treat its detainees as bad as Hussein did.
Yes, but you see the problem with that is that it’s not remotely true. Not by a million miles. The proper response is not “oh dear, what did we do that people are saying these awful things about America?” The proper response is “screw those lying scumbags who make up BS about our great country.” The things that are true should be addressed, of course, but they’re going to make up some kind of lies no matter how good we are. Hell, we’re the main reason democracy and freedom still exist in the world today, and look how much gratitude it gets us.
We can’t waste our time worrying about whatever the blatant anti-American lie du jour is.
Sojourner
Except it’s TRUE. The US now tortures people. You can no longer claim that it’s “blatant anti-American lie du jour.”
Your argument demonstrates exactly my point. When the US actually DOES the negative things people are saying, we can’t then turn around and accuse them of lying.
That’s the problem with giving up the moral high ground.
BSR
You’re kidding, right? Please tell me you’re kidding?
I couldn’t read that with a straight face — dunno how you typed it!
The Disenfranchised Voter
And we wonder why the rest of the world views us as arrogant.
It is delusional statements like these that make me question the collective wisdom of your average American.
Geoduck
It depends on your historical perspective, I suppose. If we’d sat out WWII, Europe would probably now be run by Nazis and/or Communists. (Insert obligitory right-wing ‘Who’d notice the difference’ joke here.) The 60 years since then.. our record’s pathetically spotty.
frontinus
Galloway is probably looking for more resume references after his British street cred nearly got him a fatwa a few months ago. Ahhh, sweet irony.
Steve
I guess someone needs to note at this point that we very nearly did sit out WWII.
Bob
Almost sat out WWII.
Yeah, the Repubs were against going toe to toe with the Nazis. Especially bankers like Prescott Bush.
Ollie
Hey, it was fun watching Oliver North run circles around the congressional primadonnas, but that doesn’t mean that his position was anything but contemptible. Same for Galloway. Poodle Norm Coleman deserved everything Galloway gave him, and more. Doesn’t mean Galloway’s political positions merit any respect.
RickW
yes, yes, yes…we nearly did sit out WWII. In light of losing nearly 60,000 men in WWI 20 years earlier because of some weird european pissing contest our reluctance was completely understandable.
Another Jeff
“Yeah, the Repubs were against going toe-to-toe with the Nazis.”
Wow, so Joe Kennedy is a “Repub” now?! Who knew.
“Especially bankers like Prescott Bush”.
Bankers and bootleggers, apparently.
TallDave
Sojourner:
No, we are not torturing people, and we sure as hell are not treating people remotely like Hussein did. That’s a disgusting slander of our troops and you should be ashamed of yourself for believing and repeating such vicious anti-American lies. You’re like the husband who claims to love his wife, but beats the crap out of her everytime she opens her mouth to disagree with him.
The problem is not American policies. The problem is people make up blatant lies about America, and then “useful idiots” like you repeat them for partisan attacks.
BSR, disenfranchised:
WW II? Cold War? Hello?
TallDave
Geoduck,
The sixty years since WW II? Japan. Germany. Taiwan. S Korea. Half a dozen countries in Central America. Chile. Brazil. The Phillipines. Afghanistan and Iraq. Would any of those be remotely free or democratic states absent U.S. military force, general benevolence, and pressure for reforms?
Yes, the US has supported some dictators, and even taken some anti-democratic actions. But the United States has also been by the strongest force for democratization in history. It’s just amazing to me how many people fail to notice the obvious historical trend of the entirety of human history: democracies are completely counter to human nature; dictatorship is generally the rule. Democracies very rarely happen without outside intervention and pressure by other democracies.
Sojourner
Have you been hanging out on Planet Stormy?
The US has already admitted to torture.
TallDave
The US has already admitted to torture.
Have you been smoking Howard Dean crack? Show me one single satatement where the US has said it is our policy to torture people.
Sojourner
Defense Guy
They will anyway. There is no lie or half-truth that will not be told in this battle, as there is no act of evil that our enemy will not commit. This is evident in the news that comes out every day, it is not rare.
I do not want to be as bad, or as evil as that which we fight, but at the end of the day realize that if survival is on the line, “as bad” will seem quaint. The American people will probably not elect, to the top job, anyone who doesn’t understand this.
Sojourner
Sojourner
Couldn’t get the Link feature to work.
balloon-juice.com/?p=5060
Sojourner
So be it. But there would be no evidence for their lies and objective people can judge accordingly.
Torture doesn’t work. So what’s the point?
Another Jeff
the posts at 12:44 and 12:47 are the only times sojourner has ever made sense.
TallDave
“Harsh interrogation” is not torture.
This is torture.
The picture below is of a prisoner at the Abu Ghraib prison being tortured by dripping nitric acid on him. This was a matter of routine under the Saddam Hussein regime. Tens of thousands were subject to similar torture methods.
Below is a picture of a family member of a Kurd who finds the remains of a loved one in one of the hundreds of mass graves in Iraq. Most of these victims would have been tortured in prison before taken to an open pit and then shot.
While Kos complains that letting a prisoner urinate on himself is ‘torure’, perhaps he should check out the kinds of torture instruments used by the Baathists. Notice the saw?
TallDave
Every single US Marine alive today went through harsher conditions at boot camp than the prisoners at Gitmo will ever face.
When you call our troops torturers, you might as well be spitting on them and America.
Sojourner
Ah, now we’re back to basics. As long as it’s not as bad as what others do, it’s okay.
Sorry but no. By doing so, you’re claiming that raping women and children is acceptable as long as it’s done under U.S supervision. No, no, no. Never. Under no circumstances. No.
TallDave
What??? Where the HELL did I say raping women and chidlren is ever OK??? That’s the most asinine thing you’ve said yet.
TallDave
But there would be no evidence for their lies
There is no evidence, because there is no torture. There’s only lies and exaggerations and gullible fools who repeat them.
Kimmitt
This conversation is pointless. When the pics and videos of US interrogators sodomizing little boys come out, you will be proved wrong, and that’s that. We’ll wait several weeks, and then if you have a shred of intellectual honesty — not to mention human decency — you’ll either apologize for implicitly supporting this or find the virtues of silence.
TallDave
As long as it’s not as bad as what others do, it’s okay.
The reality is, people like you are going to call it “torture” no matter how well we treat them. The prisoner asked for a chilled Coke and got a warm Pespi instead? TORTURE!! The prisoner’s Koran got a little wet by accident? Desecration!!
And then you’ll say you support the troops and love America. It’s sickening.
TallDave
Kimmit,
Since there is no evidence of anything like that, I guess that proves you wrong. Oh wait — you can’t be proved wrong, because the evidence is always “several weeks” away. Of course, you won’t admit that, because you have no intellectual honesty. Nor will you admit that even if that did happen, it’s directly counter to US policy.
Defense Guy
If this comes to pass, and if the claims are true then you are right that some will face a reckoning. However, mere claims are all that we have now, so we will just have to wait and see. However, you are taking it a step too far to make the claim that you can assert an implicit supporting of anything that cannot yet be said to be ‘in evidence’. In addition, if you find out that an action deemed harsh by those claiming to have this evidence, actually resulted in saved lives will you be apologizing or choosing silence?
Sojourner
Um, you said there was no torture. I consider rape to be a form of torture.
TallDave
Well, if you read Kimmitt’s blog, this is someone who simultaneously thinks Howard Dean is the voice of reason, says he won’t address Dean’s widely-reported characterization of Kelo as “right-wing” unless he gets a transcript, and calls himself “A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community.”
Yikes.
TallDave
Sojourner, WTF are you talking about? Where is it U.S. policy to rape anyone?
You really have gone off the deep end.
Sojourner
Ad hominem attacks are no substitute for evidence.
I didn’t say it was official policy. I said it happened.
John S.
Sure they are…it all depends on whether your goal is to win an argument (in your own mind) or make a cogent argument that stands up to criticism.
Sojourner
Good point.
The Disenfranchised Voter
Yea, the urine inadvertently was sprayed on there. Give me a fucking break. Do they store the Koran’s next to the pisser?
Personally, I don’t think they should even get the Koran, BUT if we are going to give it to them we should not be desecrating the holy book of ALL MUSLIMS. To do so is a slap in the face to all muslims, not just the extremists.
The Disenfranchised Voter
source here:
The Disenfranchised Voter
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/03/AR2005060301654.html
Sojourner
Sorry but there’s no way I will accept the position that it is acceptable for rape to occur under US oversight.
Make all the arguments you want. You’re defending the indefensible. It just shows how low the Bush supporters will go.
Is there anything the Bush administration could do that you wouldn’t support? This is a serious question. I came to this blog because I thought there were moderate people here. It never occurred to me that so many would find rape acceptable.
It’s very disheartening.