It’s perfectly clear now that Karl Rove has chosen the party line.
The abuses committed against Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison were the "actions of a few."
President Bush used those words in West Virginia yesterday. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said the same thing in Washington and Baghdad. Insufficient proof? OK. What about its use in an Albuquerque Joournal column today by an Administration spokesman – syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer. He writes:
"But how do the actions of a few depraved soldiers among 135,000 negate the moral purpose of the entire enterprise…" etc., etc.
Closed case.
Reminder. The International Red Cross said the problem was systemic. The Army General who investigated said the problem involved chain of command problems. Both noted it went on for a long time.
It was not a few soldiers. It was systemic.
Having said that, give the White House credit for adopting a strategy that plays into folk wisdom. Everybody knows and almost everybody agrees that you can find a few bad apples in every barrel. Also, we know it doesn’t make sense to say the whole barrel is rotten.
Somewhere in the mists of antiquity, I guess, a ruler invented the "rotten apple" theory to distract attention from himself and his buddies at the top of the ladder and the way they were operating, their system.
It’s worked pretty well ever since, so many Americans may not put the blame where it belongs - on the rulers at the top of our ladder.