Very Upsetting Story from Texas

I have always tried my best to give this administration and its staff the benefit of the doubt. But I have tried to be honest about its shortcomings. Even through the Blackwater fiasco, I tried. This story that I read about today is inexcusable. I'm going to post a link to a story that I read on ABC News.com via the Drudge Report today that makes me very sad and very angry. I can honestly say that I have never felt so let down as I do by the United States Departments of State and Justice. The legacy of former A.G. Gonzalez continues and a huge problem for which the Secretary of State must answer.

This is the kind of garbage that makes it difficult for our brave men and women overseas to do their job, to earn the respect of the world, and to earn the respect of the people and nations that they are serving. Iraq is a noble cause, but it has been so messed up by the present bureacracy and administration that I am embarrassed to have voted for them. I hope the story of this young woman leaves many people in Washington unable to sleep tonight. The screams of help from this young lady should ring in every politician's and Iraq contractor's head for a long time to come.

Rape Cover-up in Iraq reported by ABC News via The Drudge Report.

I've been very critical of the media throughout the Iraq War and I think it's more than justified. I think that very much has been made of very little. And I think that very little good has been reported of the abundance that has happened. But I do think that this story needs to be told--VERY LOUD, and VERY CLEAR. A young women named Jamie Leigh Jones deserves justice. It just goes to show that brutality is not only a quality of the extremists that our brave Soldiers and Marines are fighting. It is also a quality of a few who answer to no law in Iraq. Our goal should be to protect the innocent. It should not be used to shield the guilty.

Let me be clear. This - in no way - has anything to do with any group of people as a whole. Nor does this story have any relation to tactics used by the CIA in the questioning of terrorist suspects and enemy combatants. I do hope that leftist partisans do not try to draw this into the "torture" debate. But I am afraid that Harry Reid (political hack that he is) is going to blame the President and every other member of the Bush administration for every brutal detail. What is sad is that he might even get the support and sympathy of the media to go along with him. The administration is responsible for their inability to earn justice for this young lady. Only the men who perpetrated these actions (and possibly the company) are responsible for the crime.

KBR & Halliburton executives should be screaming from the rooftops for investigations and apologizing all over themselves. I am absolutely disgusted that these companies are American and continue to remain silent. The management of these companies verges on incompetency and its stockholders should be disgusted. If they are responsible for setting this culture in their organization, then they should also be punished to the full extent of the law. I would also hope that a free market would exercise its right to sell off their shares and/or replace the management if need be.

Am I speaking before I've heard all the facts? Yep. I hope I don't have to eat my words, but I could not keep silent on this.

My thoughts and prayers are with Jamie and her family.

mR

Picture Source: ABC News.com

Update - Friday April 20, 2007

Part 2 of the Democrats: "The War is Lost" will be forthcoming in a later post. For now, something from today...

Harry Reid's gaffe on Thursday was a big one. Why is no one covering this? John McCain's "Bomb" (which is of almost no consequence) is still in the news 2 days after it first broke. CNN doesn't even reference the Reid admission directly or on it's front page, you actually have to look for it. It's fallen off the Reuters page. But note that one of the top stories on CNN.com is "Will Bush still stand by Gonzalez?" On the New York Times website you won't find it on the Politics pages, only multiple stories of the AG's brush with Senate lawmakers, Republican problems with 2006 elections, and information about Edwards $400 haircuts. You'll have to go all the way to the Washington page at the bottom below the story about Wolfowitz's questionable activities with his girlfriend.

But don't get me started on the Gonzalez fiasco. What started as a political hatchet job has turned into a viable story--not because of any evidence of a wrong doing, but of the complete inability of our nation's top law enforcement officer to run his department with any semblance of order, organization, or procedure. This is why I am sure that this administration's own worst enemy is itself. I'm sure there is more to come on this. This is just another White House appointment blunder along the lines of Dick Cheney, Hariet Myers, Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld. I want to know who is making the appointment suggestions to the president. They needed to be thrown over the side of this sinking ship a long time ago. The best things to come out of this White House is Colin Powell, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito. Please, oh please, don't prove me wrong.