Conservatives begin all-out effort to diminish prisoner abuse scandal

The tea leaves have now been read, I smell a vast right-wing conspiracy brewing.

You were probably just as shocked as I was that a Republican Senator today basically condoned the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. I figured that was just the voice of one wingnut until I watched the news tonight and checked my latest email. Guess who else was making excuses for the abuse? First Sean Hannity on conservative radio, and now Gary Bauer via the religious right news service. All this happening within the same afternoon. Coincidence? Unlikely.

Bauer's criticism is so bizarre and convoluted (he, for example, brings up Chappadquiddick) that I won't even get into it - you've got the link above to read to your heart's content. As for Hannity, after one of his callers complained that the current scandal is all the fault of the "liberal media," Hannity asked: "Do we now understand the difference between atrocity and mistreatment?" (refering to today's beheading of an American civilian contractor in Iraq). Ah yes, the beheading of an American now excuses or at least mitigates the sadistic sexual and physical torture of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers. Somehow the fact that Hannity has suddenly discovered evil in the world makes it more acceptable for Americans to share a part of that evil. (I'm always amused when a Bible-thumper excuses blatant immorality by pointing to the blatant immorality of someone else. I had no idea that Sean Hannity's standard of acceptable morality for himself, for our servicemembers, and for our country is to be slightly better than Al Qaeda. Yes, we don't cut off heads. Bully for our side.)

In any case, it troubles me that conservatives have now latched on to this horrifying issue in a coordinated way to bash liberals. It's one thing to make an issue political. Hell, that's just the way Washington works, like it or not. It's another to go political in a manner that actually threatens serious harm to a serious issue, and that's what the conservatives are now doing. They are outright trying to diminish the severity and the import of this scandal, ultimately implying that - nudge nudge, wink wink - what happened was actually okay, or at the very least, wasn't nearly as bad as people say. That kind of moral relativism, or moral dilution, sends an awful message to our troops (who are already apparently pretty damn confused about what the rules are), and sends an even worse message to our own citizens, and the rest of the world.