Last week, on the one-year anniversary of his false claim that 'major combat operations' in Iraq were over, Bush said "there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq." He has made this claim a couple of times before. He is wrong, on all three counts. We've seen photos this week of the American torture chambers in Abu Ghraib. Photos and video of Iraqi prisoners being raped are widely rumored, even Rumsfeld admits they exist. And the BBC showed photos of a mass grave in Fallujah, for the hundreds of corpses from the intense American bombing there last month.
Donald Rumsfeld said "These events occurred on my watch.
As Secretary of Defense, I am accountable for them and I take full
responsibility."
So why is he still in office?
These days people seem to think that saying "I take responsibility"
means something like confessing your sins to a priest; you say your
Hail Marys and then it's all better.
Not so.
To me, taking responsibility means resigning and surrendering himself
for prosecution by the Iraqi civilian authorities, or the International
Court of Justice in The Hague.