Physician Heal Thyself

"America's image was not significantly damaged by Newsweek; it was damaged by the lack of a prudent administration who should have been making public real efforts to hold itself accountable."

Many proverbs come to mind on hearing how the US administration is chastising Newsweek (see White House bashes Newsweek report on Koran - Yahoo! News) including this one:

"How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

Good judgment is a scarcity in this administration as they show no hesitation to influence and distract public opinion by reprimanding a specific media organization against their standards when they do not keep their own; it's the oversized kettle calling the littlest pot black.

Don't get me wrong, Newsweek and other media should be accountable for poor judgment but if this particular Newsweek report was the spark that set off tragic consequences in Afghanistan [1], how could we then ignore the pre-existing explosive gas that has been building up within room. This dangerous gas leak was not the fault of Newsweek, but the present US administration. Either by their tragic ignorance (but how could they not smell the 'rotten egg' odor), or their incompetence (how could superpower leaders be so weak in administrative jurisprudence), it is they that have allowed the American image of justice to tarnish. (Using my version of Hanlon's razor, I am leaving off the table a third possible motive: maliciousness)

The Abu Ghraib tortures has damaged the American image in the Middle East for several generations to come, and the US's anemic attempt at justice does nothing to alleviate it. We have lacked the disclosure and higher-level administrative accountability needed by both ourselves and the rest of the world. In America's corporate world, executives have lost jobs for doing far less damage to their corporation's image. Unfortunately, this administration is not run like a good transparent public corporation, much less like an administration of a liberal constitutional tradition, and instead loyalty to partisan ideology is fiercely protected and dissension is stifled. (Again, we can take a cue from Wall Street , where the days of the all-powerful, overly image conscious CEO has ended, in favor of corporate executives who can lead, execute and deliver well... but that's another story).

One year later we lack visible high-level administrative accountability, not even the proverbial scapegoat has been offered by the administration, rather activities and processes regarding Guantanamo are as secret as ever. How can the rest of the world not doubt the sincerity of the US administration in seeking justice? This is the explosive gas that has been allowed to leak profusely for over a year, and the rest of the world recognizes that rotten egg smell and awaits new information with little surprise. From the earliest days that the prison tortures became public news, the administration has declared that they are "outraged" (see my blog of a year ago) but little to no action has been publically forthcoming. As the first trial date for a low-ranking guard at Abu Ghraib was announced, a calm, reasoned Richard Perle appears on CSPAN indicated that it was now time to move on and that we have a media that is "focused exclusively on violence and bad news” and not on the good things happening in Iraq. Even if that was somehow a good argument which I think it is not, its not just the US Media... because the Middle East really watches Al Jazeera. Did Perle and the current administration really think they can influence Al Jazeera to focus on something more complimentary to the administration's policies? Of course not, they were only worried about American opinion and therefore American media, remember it was an election year. A prudent administration of a hegemon nation would take responsibility and know how to speak to the Arab world and if not stop the gas leak, at least open the windows and doors in a sincere effort to clear the air.

So here we are a year later, the gas has built up and the uncontrolled spark happened and no significant work was done to release the gas. Until now the administration had closely guarded against further disclosures of the "prison abuses", remember Rumsfield saying there are even worse pictures to come. The desecration of the Koran story was a spark not because it happened or did not happened (and there is no proof that it didn't happen or something similar to it [2]) , but rather because it has become so reasonable to believe that it did happen. And that was not the fault of Newsweek.

Now, instead of Perle, we hear the White House Spokesman directly say that "the [Newsweek] report had real consequences. People have lost their lives. Our image abroad has been damaged." So another proverb comes to mind:

"You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel."

America's image was not significantly damaged by Newsweek; it was damaged by the lack of a prudent administration who should have been making public real efforts to hold itself accountable. One can only be dismayed, troubled or cynical when hearing the Whitehouse spokesman say that "It's puzzling that while Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refused to retract the story, I think there's a certain journalistic standard that should be met and in this instance it was not." What is puzzling is this adminsitration's lack of prudence and sincerity. Once again rather than deal with their own "plank sized" problem in their eyes, making them unable to see reality, they turn their ire on the "speck" in Newsweek's eye. So what now? Are we to have weeks of discussion on journalistic accountability, rather than on administrative accountability or when does loyalty in the administration end and justice begin? Sadly there is one other proverb that came to mind, that has implications rarely discussed for the future of Americans and it is:

"Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you".

All of us will do well to not only pray for the American troops today but also for the American troops that will fight in the next war. Specifically let us pray that these men and women will receive mercy at the hands of those who may capture them... asking that our enemies not give what they might call the "American" treatment.

---
[1] However the NY Times reports "Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said that the senior commander in Afghanistan believed the protests had stemmed from that country's reconciliation process."
[2] The source said he could no longer confirm seeing it in the report. However, it has been earlier reported that a major Guantanamo prisoner hunger strike over the US's mistreatment of the Koran were only ended when the commander issued an apology over the loudspeaker. Former Briton inmates reported desecration of the Koran including being kicked around and thrown in the toilet.