In Frank Rich-land, reality takes a holiday

In today's NY Times, one can find a Frank Rich article entitledOn Television, Torture Takes a Holiday. I won't quote from it here; it's too utterly stupid and it lowers the tone of my blog. His main point is that he's shocked, shocked, that American TV isn't running 24 hour footage of the photos about Abu Ghraib. How dare we move on and pretend there are other things in life? Mr. Rich, I think you need some perspective. If there was not a legitimate military purpose to the events at Abu Ghraib (such as realistic efforts to obtain information from knowledgeable sources about planned strikes against our armed forces, or against America), it's appropriate to act against what happened in Abu Ghraib and try to prevent recurrences -- not because we owe it to the enemy, to whom we have no Geneva Convention-imposed obligations, but because we owe it to ourselves not to abase and cheapen ourselves. And unless I'm much mistaken, the US Army has been acting against those charged with the events at Abu Ghraib, so it's not as if we've been sitting around contemplating our navels. Having said that, I think we should send Mr. Rich on a little tour of a few countries that really understand what torture is all about. How about pre-liberation Iraq, where Saddam and his sons beheaded mothers on the street in front of their children, raped women and threw them to dogs to be torn apart alive, gassed whole villages, tortured failed Olympic athletes, etc. Or perhaps a nice trip to Iran, where village elders try, convict and personally execute girls who reject their advances, or where religious tribunals routinely gouge out eyes, cut off ears, and cut off hands of people deemed apostates. Or let's journey over to North Korea, where the whole country is kept in abject misery and poverty to power a military machine, and where deadly poisons are tested on prisoners. Maybe Mr. Rich would like to visit the Congo, where recent past leaders have considered cannibalism a good way to deter the enemy. Or perhaps the Sudan where, having successfully achieved the complete genoicide or expulsion of all Christians, the government has now set its sights on black Muslims. I could go on and on and on. Mr. Rich obviously hates America, but is too ignorant to appreciate the fact that, for all its imperfections, America is a wonderful country and certainly one of the best there is now, or ever was. I'd forgive his idiotic opinings if only he didn't have the NY Times as his forum, allowing him to distill his poison throughout our country and the world.