Credibility -> Gone

I can't get the latest remarks by Libya's Khadafy out of my head. Libya has committed and continues to commit some of the world's worst violations of basic human rights. And yet when called to task by American leaders, even Khadafy uses Abu Ghraib as an excuse to scoff. Our moral leadership, such as it was, has been destroyed.

We know now that Rumsfeld knew about the Pentagon's torture policies, and indeed approved them. We also know that, according to the International Red Cross, up to 90% of the prisoners in Abu Ghraib were completely innocent. Detainees were picked up, even disappeared, based on rumors or malicious gossip, held without charges, stripped of their dignity and rights, as well as their clothes. Is this how a compassionate government works?

Of course not. A truly compassionate country wouldn't be in Iraq in the first place. A compassionate people would never have allowed the slaughter of 10,000-11,000 innocent civilians and the maiming of countless others.

How can we claim the moral high ground with Libya, North Korea, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and countless other countries currently in the process of destroying their own people when we ourselves have allowed the politics of fear to poison our own military? We can't.

Will we again? Possibly. But only under strong leadership that values the humanity in all people, not just (certain) Americans, and inspires that high regard throughout his or her electorate, troops and civilians alike. Like any business, the culture of an organization comes from the top and spreads down throughout the hierarchy. So it is with the US government. And until we replace the top with someone who truly values human life in all its manifestations, we will never, NEVER be able to display the positive moral example that effects change throughout the world populace and empowers the oppressed everywhere.