I fear for my city

From Bob in Fountain Hills, Arizona:

Robert Robb misses the target twice in his column Wednesday "Amnesty International has forfeited its credibility."

(Read the piece in question, here.)

First, Robb agrees that what President Bush has done at Guantanamo and other sites - ship non-combatants to foreign countries and hold them, sometimes torturing them, without hearings - is illegal and downright un-American. So when Robb tries to dismiss the central point of the Amnesty International report (that the description of Bush's gulag-like behavior was accurate and appropriate) by quibbling over a metaphor, he might as well shoot the horse for having a loose shoe.

Quibbling? Bob is entitled to his outrage over conduct of American personnel vis-a-vis treatment of detainees. I don't share it entirely, but he is welcome to it. What he is not entitled to, nor is AI for that matter, is expanding and changing the definition of 'gulag.'

Bob appears comfortable with AI's attempt at sucking any and all meaning from the term. There is no comparison in size, numbers or scope between what goes on at Guantanamo--even on it's worst day--and what went on in Stalin's gulags. To claim so cheapens the word and what's worse, leaves you eventually no adequate term should the real thing rear it's ugly head some day in the future.

But Robb misses even more when he suggests "they've slipped into aimless Bush bashing." Robb doesn't seem to realize that Bush bashing is never aimless. For all Bush bashers, the president offers a giant, neon-lit Times Square target to aim directly at. We can hardly miss. And Amnesty International did not miss this time.

This, well...speaks for itself. It is one thing to disagree with your political leadership. It is another to operate in a world where no position other than yours is acceptable. The very fact that Bob apparently cannot even allow for the idea that the Administration approaches subjects from a differing view-point than his own speaks volumes. About him.