Busharon: The Countdown

15 May 2004, Uri Avnery, Gush-Shalom

excerpts:

The strange creature named the Busharon is in serious trouble.

The front half of this animal - George W. Bush - is having trouble with nude photos. Not only those of the hapless Iraqi prisoners, with the exuberant female soldier pointing at their genitals, but also of Bush himself, whose nakedness was exposed for all to see.

The savior of the Iraqi people from a cruel tyrant, the gallant leader bestowing democracy on Mesopotamia, the representative of Western civilization fighting against barbarism - has himself been exposed as a cruel barbarian.

Let no one kid himself: this is not a case of a few sadists, male and female, who happened to find themselves in one place. It is already clear that there was systematic abuse of prisoners - keeping them naked, humiliating them sexually, sending in vicious dogs which probably bit them, preventing them from sleeping, keeping them shackled in painful positions for a long time, covering their heads with filthy hoods, threatening them with electrocution - all these were photographed. But there can be little doubt that with such an attitude towards the prisoners, much worse torture was applied but not photographed.

It is now quite clear that this is applied as standard procedure for 'softening' up prisoners. Not only in this prison, not only in all the other prisons in Iraq, but also in Afghanistan, in the devil's island of Guatanamo and all the other places where such defenseless victims, most of them quite innocent people who were picked up by accident, are imprisoned. Meaning: this was a matter of policy, coming from the highest level.

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The animal's rear end - Ariel Sharon - is also in great trouble.

This started with the rejection of the "Unilateral Disengagement" plan by the Likud members, a tiny part of the population, manipulated by the settlers. Since then Sharon has been prowling around like a caged predator. He has no majority among his ministers and members of parliament (they are bound by the party referendum), he is unable to form another government (the MPs of his party will not allow it), he is unable to fulfil his promise to President Bush (and has made Bush look ridiculous).

He has begun to blabber about "other plans" that he is forming - reminding one of Groucho Marx's joke: "Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others."

BUSHARON: The Countdown