Human rights? Oh, we don’t have time for that – we’re fighting terror.
In Pakistan, there are some really kooky muslim fundamentalists who carry "traditional family values" to a point where the kooky satanic fundamentalists can only dream of going. You've all heard of honor killing, right? Where if some poor woman gets raped, her family gets together and murders her to rid the family of the stain to their reputation (it's like the MPAA rating system; violence is okay, but any icky sex stuff is right out and must be gotten rid of no matter what.) Well, in the frontiers of Pakistan, they've developed an interesting variant; if a man or boy does something that the village disapproves of, the town gets revenge on this by arranging to gang-rape a woman in his household, who is then expected to do the honorable thing and commit suicide.
A year or so ago, Mukhtaran Bibi, of Meerwala, Pakistan, had the misfortune to fall afoul of this odious sort of traditional family value, but rather than committing suicide after being brutally violated, she sicced the law on her rapists, got them tossed into jail, then, after getting some attention in the US press, ended up with enough grant money to start a couple of schools so the children of her village would get enough education to see just how barbaric the local traditional family values are.
Unfortunately, this is in Pakistan, where the government is in thrall to the Taliban. And, apparently, the local branches of the Taliban find this to be beyond the pale. So, in the last week, the government of Pakistan -- at, apparently, the order of president for life Pervez Musharraf -- disappeared Ms. Bibi and freed her rapists.
And what does the Coward in Chief do? Why, he's praising Musharref for his "bold leadership."
Human rights? Shoot, there's a war on; you can't go around destroying morale by implying that gangrapes are wrong.
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My Dearest, please awake to the Realities of the Modern World.
Thus:
But the U.S. State Department recently had to waive rules requiring nations getting U.S. aid to meet certain human-rights criteria to continue the arrangement.
It would be shocking if Bush refused to nurture these relationships because of human-rights concerns.
He is idealistic but not stupid.
"Shocking". And, may I submit, IMMORAL.