opinion
Also in this section:
Leis, Justice on trial
What they're saying about Iraq
Gore, Disgrace and humiliation
Bush, Speech to the Air Force Academy graduating class
Gutman, The timid Honduran press
Cryan, Mainstream reporting about Colombia
Carpio, The Latin America and Caribbean - European Union summit
Bond, Brown's broken promise
Durán, Split in the Panamanian left
Jackson, No blank check for the Electoral Tribunal
 
What they're saying about the Iraq War
I'm ashamed that I went against my own instincts in supporting it.
[O]ur government and our coalition will transfer full sovereignty, complete and full sovereignty, to an Iraqi government that will be picked by Mr. Brahimi of the United Nations.
It is our patriotic duty to speak out when egregiously flawed policies and strategies needlessly cost American lives. It is time for the president to ask those responsible for the flawed Iraqi policy --- civilian and military --- to resign from public service.
Maj. Gen. William A. Whitlow, USMC (ret)
We declare our horror at recent evidence of the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraqi jails. These abuses go against international law.
Declaration of the Guadalajara, Mexico
European-Latin American-Caribbean summit
There will be a lot of difficulties along the way because these people who are trying to stop us rebuilding Iraq and trying to stop ordinary Iraqis rebuilding Iraq are very determined to do it.
Our retreat from Fallujah has emboldened the insurgents.
John McCain and Joseph Lieberman
Like Nixon, this president decided the Constitution could be bent on his watch. Terrorism justified it, and Rumsfeld's Pentagon promoted policies making inevitable what happened at Abu Ghraib --- and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
America's Iraq policy requires a fundamental strategic reappraisal. The present policy --- justified by falsehoods, pursued with unilateral arrogance, blinded by self-delusion, and stained by sadistic excesses --- cannot be corrected with a few hasty palliatives.
The global security agenda promulgated by the US administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle.
Amnesty International general secretary Irene Khan
The Iraqi government must at the least be consulted on the initiatives of that [US-led coalition] force. It must retain sovereign government authority over the Iraqi forces.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier
It's regrettable that this president is never going to admit any shortcomings, much less failure. That's an aspect of Mr. Bush's character that we have to live with. But we cannot live without a serious plan for doing more than just getting through the June 30 transition and then muddling along until the November elections in the United States.
Editorial in The New York Times
Image Problems Continue to Hamper US Forces in Iraq
Voice of America headline
There is a momentum for peace.
The Bush administration and its defenders have chiefly sought to limit a public-relations disaster --- the dissemination of the photographs --- rather than deal with the complex crimes of leadership and of policy revealed by the pictures.
The only way you're going to get any information out of any captive is to demoralize them, and that's the way to demoralize those people, and that's what the military does. The military is not police. We do not police people. We do not police countries. We run a war.
Rolling Thunder president Artie Muller
Military intelligence practice in the field involves layers of illusion and deceit. Ostensibly the layers of identity protect intelligence operations from the enemy. At the same time, these levels of identity fool ordinary GIs and make it difficult for them to know who has done what or who has asked them to do what. GIs may assume that they are working with a Military Intelligence civilian when they are in fact dealing with a regular army officer or enlisted man or woman. Such a set up can leave the GI with all of the blame and no evidence who these MI contractors were.
Vietnam Veterans Against the War staff member Dave Curry,
who was a US Army Intelligence interrogater in Vietnam
The horrific treatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib has its dark precedents in the prisons and police stations across America.
We are anxious to build up Iraqi forces, start to step back, and then, as the situation improves, bring our troop numbers down.
At this point, public opinion has caught up with the [antiwar] movement. A majority supports military withdrawal from Iraq. Bush’s favorability ratings, and even Iraq ratings, are falling hard.
You just sort of try to block out the fact that they're human beings and see them as enemies. You call them hajis, you know? You do all the things that make it easier to deal with killing them and mistreating them.
US Army National Guard Sgt. Camilo Mejia,
convicted for desertion for refusing to return to Iraq
Given the recent revelations from Abu Ghraib prison, the US government has picked one hell of a moment to ask for special treatment on war crimes. The UN Security Council should not grant special favors to any country, including the United States.
Richard Dicker, director, Human Rights Watch’s International Justice program,
against a move to immunize US troops before the International Criminal Court
The photos did something else to me, as a feminist: They broke my heart. I had no illusions about the US mission in Iraq --- whatever exactly it is --- but it turns out that I did have some illusions about women.
We need a transfer of full sovereignty to an Iraqi government, an Iraqi government, which will be provided with all the signs and principles of a sovereign government. From June 30, international military presence in Iraq will be provided on request from this new Iraqi government.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen
In his speech to the Army War College on May 24, Bush blamed the Abu Ghraib torture scandal on "a few American troops." In other words, there was no chain of command. But the orders to use the abusive techniques came from the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld.
I think, more than anything else, activity in the right direction will outweigh the bad publicity we've had. So, we're just doing the best we can right now to show people that we're sincere about doing projects that will impact their area and help them in the long run.
US Army Capt. Tommy Fauvell, who oversees
the reconstruction of Baghdad-area sewers
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