A Washington Post story raises serious questions about the President's ability to run a country, especially one that has gone to war.
But it also raises another serious issue that has been left unexplored: whether the Bush Administration really cared about the torture of Iraqis. It seems likely that it knew--at the highest levels--of the torture fairly early on, based on internal military reports and on Red Cross reports. But it took only mild action in response.
The Washington Post requested, weeks ago, information as to when Bush learned of the atrocities. This is the revealing answer:
"After weeks of research, officials at the White House, State Department and Pentagon said they were still unable to supply a specific timeline of what Bush knew, and when, about allegations of systemic problems in military prisons. They have, however, supplied some data about the subject for the first time since an April 28 broadcast by CBS's "60 Minutes II" set off an international furor.
Until that broadcast, officials said, Bush had not been told that photos or videos existed of U.S. soldiers' use of intimidation, humiliation and excessive force."
Note that the Administration only says that Bush learned of the *photos* and *videos* only on the day of the CBS airing. This implies that he knew of the torture itself earlier. Did he take any action in response to the earlier knowledge? The sad answer is that he did not seem to lift a finger--not to protect Iraqi detainees, not to protect American soldiers who should not be tortured at the hands of future enemies, nor to protect the good name of our country.