Monday, January 10, 2005
So whatever happened to Bush's promise last May to demolish Abu Ghraib? As someone recently wrote in the Post:
The Bush administration's ability to simply flush whole issues, whole scandals, even its own empty propaganda, down the memory hole has got to be its most effective technique of evading the consequences of its actions. Tearing down Abu Ghraib was a stupid public relations promise and stupid public relations promises are precisely the promises that are often kept; it was also supposedly Bush's very own idea; but Abu Ghraib will remain undemolished because tearing it down would remind the world that it exists.
In most of the world, something that happened eight months ago is considered "recent." In Washington, however, it seems that eight months ago is considered "ancient."
The Bush administration's ability to simply flush whole issues, whole scandals, even its own empty propaganda, down the memory hole has got to be its most effective technique of evading the consequences of its actions. Tearing down Abu Ghraib was a stupid public relations promise and stupid public relations promises are precisely the promises that are often kept; it was also supposedly Bush's very own idea; but Abu Ghraib will remain undemolished because tearing it down would remind the world that it exists.
