LOS ANGELES — John Kerry suggested that President Bush should go beyond condemning U.S. soldiers' abuse of Iraqi prisoners to express America's regret or even apologize.
[snip]
"The horrifying abuse of Iraqi prisoners which the world has now seen is absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable. And the response of the administration, certainly the Pentagon, has been slow and inappropriate."
5/5/04, Instapundit:
WELL, NO SOONER DO I PRAISE KERRY, BELOW, than he shoots off his mouth and says something stupid. Or at least damaging and partisan.
[snip]
Kerry's remarks were not Presidential.
5/5/04, Instapundit:
But Kerry accused his fellow soldiers of war crimes -- after he returned from Vietnam. That's a lot less courage than was displayed by the U.S. soldier who complained to his superiors about abuses at Abu Ghraib, resulting in an investigation that got his commanding general relieved in January -- months before this issue went public. Which is why Kerry's latest complaints about the Administration moving "slowly" on this are so utterly pathetic. That I had just finished praising him for his earlier, more sensible remarks just makes me feel like a sucker.
6/17/07, The New Yorker:
Taguba came to believe that Lieutenant General Sanchez, the Army commander in Iraq, and some of the generals assigned to the military headquarters in Baghdad had extensive knowledge of the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib even before Joseph Darby came forward with the CD. Taguba was aware that in the fall of 2003 — when much of the abuse took place — Sanchez routinely visited the prison, and witnessed at least one interrogation. According to Taguba, “Sanchez knew exactly what was going on.”
[snip]
Nevertheless, Rumsfeld, in his appearances before the Senate and the House Armed Services Committees on May 7th, claimed to have had no idea of the extensive abuse. “It breaks our hearts that in fact someone didn’t say, ‘Wait, look, this is terrible. We need to do something,’” Rumsfeld told the congressmen. “I wish we had known more, sooner, and been able to tell you more sooner, but we didn’t.”
Rumsfeld told the legislators that, when stories about the Taguba report appeared, “it was not yet in the Pentagon, to my knowledge.” As for the photographs, Rumsfeld told the senators, “I say no one in the Pentagon had seen them”; at the House hearing, he said, “I didn’t see them until last night at 7:30.” …Taguba, watching the hearings, was appalled. He believed that Rumsfeld’s testimony was simply not true. “The photographs were available to him — if he wanted to see them,” Taguba said.
In other words, Rumsfeld knew of the Abu Ghraib incidents for months. "Slow and inappropriate" was pretty damn accurate, wasn't it, Putz?
Not that I expect Putz to apologize for accusing John Kerry of "damaging and partisan" statements. Or Powerline, who wrote about Kerry's comments in a post titled "Never pass up an opportunity to slander your country."
As a wise man once said, being a warblogger means never having to say you're sorry.
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