The Marine colonel also wrote that "one of the largest newspapers in the Pan-Arab world" -- he doesn't specify which one -- had "raised the stakes even higher" by editorializing with the following:

"What happened at Abu Ghuraib is not surprising as there are many stories of horror inside Arab jails. The abuses that the Arab governments condemn at Abu Ghuraib are nothing compared to what happens in these governments' jails. Will the Arab regimes go on TV and apologize to their people in the same way President Bush did?"

The strategic payoff of such press, argued the Marine colonel, could be enormous.

"My colleague who heads our Arab media unit here in Baghdad called these statements nothing short of revolutionary for the Middle East media. And while they may not seem that profound on the surface, they are threads of a far greater, and still unfolding, story. Yes, the horrific actions of a few have tainted the good work of the many. But they have unwittingly done something else. The events of the past several days have given democracy a global stage within which to prove its worth.

"In all their lives, the citizens of Iraq never heard Saddam Hussein apologize. Not once. Not when he gassed more than 10,000 of his own people on an April morning a decade ago. Not when he dragged 300,000 men, women and children from their homes in the dead of night to be driven into the desert and summarily executed and buried in mass, unmarked graves ... No, the first time the people of this land ever heard an apology it came from the leader of the world's oldest democracy ... He was apologizing because in this instance, we were wrong."

Where is the FCC now?
When the torture story first broke, Rush Limbaugh made a number of outrageous remarks about the revelations, including calling the abuses by U.S. soldiers "pretty thoughtful" and "a brilliant maneuver." But two of his fellow right-wing shock jocks have since spewed rhetoric on the air waves that makes Limbaugh's comments look like child's play.

The sentiments speak for themselves, but what is perhaps most disturbing is their reach. "Savage Nation's" syndicated radio host Michael Savage, already infamous for telling a gay caller to "get AIDS and die" (MSNBC fired him for that), boasts 6 million American listeners per week, according to the nonprofit watchdog group Media Matters.org. On May 11, while repeatedly calling Abu Ghraib "Grab-an-Arab" prison, he launched into this little tirade:

"I think there should be no mercy shown to these sub-humans. I believe that a thousand of them should be killed tomorrow. I think a thousand of them held in the Iraqi prison should be given 24 hour[s] -- a trial and executed. I think they need to be shown that we are not going to roll over to them ... Instead of putting joysticks, I would have liked to have seen dynamite put in their orifices and they should be dropped from airplanes ... They should put dynamite in their behinds and drop them from 35,000 feet, the whole pack of scum out of that jail."

The next day Savage added that Arabs were "racist, fascist bigots," and purported to speak for a majority of Americans regarding the war. He offered several all-American solutions to our problems in the Middle East.

"Right now, even people sitting on the fence would like George Bush to drop a nuclear weapon on an Arab country. They don't even care which one it would be. I can guarantee you -- I don't need to go to Mr. Schmuck [pollster John] Zogby and ask him his opinion ... The most -- I tell you right now -- the largest percentage of Americans would like to see a nuclear weapon dropped on a major Arab capital. They don't even care which one...

"I think these people need to be forcibly converted to Christianity ... It's the only thing that can probably turn them into human beings."

He also made sure to plug his credentials.

"I'm going to give you one further example from my background as an anthropologist just so that you -- I'm trying to put context on this because you can go crazy if you don't have the context on this, because I'm going to lead up to something of what we must do to these primitives. Because these primitives can only be treated in one way, and I don't think smallpox and a blanket is good enough incidentally ... Smallpox in a blanket, which the U.S. Army gave to the Cherokee Indians on their long march to the West, was nothing compared to what I'd like to see done to these people."

Meanwhile, on May 14 Clear Channel radio host Glenn Beck, whose syndicated program airs on more than 100 stations across the country, offered some warm sentiments about the family of slain American civilian Nick Berg, who was beheaded by Islamic militants in Iraq.

"It is truly amazing to see the photos of uh -- of Nick Berg's dad out on the lawn just preaching to the choir about how he's gonna be on stage for an International ANSWER [Act Now to Stop War & End Racism] rally that is uh, rallying the people against racism and the war in just a couple of weeks -- don't forget the date. It's truly amazing stuff. Then he came out yesterday also and said, 'Well, ya know, al-Qaida MAY be as bad as the Bush administration.' [long pause] I'm supposed to feel bad for this guy ... I'm beginning to really dislike this guy. I'm beginning to question, you know, 'Can you let your son's body become the same temperature as your son's head before you turn this into a political campaign against the president -- could you do that?' ... I think he is grieving, but I think he's a scumbag as well. I don't like this guy at all."

(Is anybody wondering at this point if Howard Stern, who was booted off the air by Clear Channel last month, is still at the top of the FCC's hit list?)

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