Doug's Darkworld

I have tried to back-off on my vitriol for the Bush administration, in order to avoid offending my mainstream conservative friends and readers. There is a time when a story comes along that is so shocking and powerful that it simply cannot be ignored, and more on point, I cannot ignore my reaction to it. This is the time. I am of course talking about the Jamie Leigh Jones gang rape case.

Not familiar with it? ABC news just broke the story. To wit, a 22 year old Texas woman claims she was gang raped by Halliburton employees in Iraq, and that Halliburton and the US government have conspired to cover the story up. She was drugged, assaulted, and raped by fellow employees. Then she was kept prisoner in a storage container for a day, threatened with loss of her current and future jobs if she went to the authorities. She escaped when a sympathetic guard let her use his cell phone. She called her dad in Texas, he called his Congressman. Some Federal employees came and got her, Army doctors determined she had been raped…the evidence was turned over to Halliburton. No one has been arrested in this case, no federal agency is investigating it. The evidence is “missing.”

Ok then. This was two years ago and nothing has been done since. The story broke because the victim victim has brought civil suit against Halliburton, since she appeared to have no other recourse. Legal experts say that basically Halliburton employees pretty much have blanket legal immunity for what they do in Iraq, so that the government’s hands are tied.

These are the basic facts in evidence at this point. Please understand my reaction is based on the idea that these basic facts are true as presented. My reaction is as follows: (Children, leave the room now.) What the FUCK??!! First off, I’m not even understanding the basics of this story. When federal employees found an American woman being held prisoner by American personnel, and army doctors determined she had indeed been raped, why wasn’t a squad of soldiers sent to the Halliburton facility to arrest the suspects and send them in irons back to the USA for trial?

This is beyond shocking. The president has spent seven years claiming he is the man when it comes to protecting Americans, but when his own employees gang rape an American citizen, he does nothing? Even worse, he has spent seven years and asking for and receiving extraordinary powers to protect America. He claims he can detain anyone on the planet as an “enemy combatant,” but he can’t arrest Americans who gang raped an American citizen? Bush sent these people to Iraq, they are contractees of the Federal government which makes them his employees. And as the commander-in-chief, he is responsible for what they do. You know, the old “The buck stops here” thing.

I hardly even know what to say. That the mainstream media is largely ignoring this story tells volumes itself. I don’t see how anyone can defend Bush or his administration after this. Anyone who henceforth tries to tell me that Bush is about protecting America is going to get a piece of my mind. Bush needs to act now on this one and make sure these men get arrested and tried, and that anyone involved in covering this up gets arrested and tried. I’m quite sure his creative legal advisers can come up with legal justification for this. If they can justify torture and detaining Americans for years without trial on the slimmest accusations, they can damn well justify arresting American citizens and trying them for raping another American citizen.

In the past I’ve tried to respect Bush the man even while I disagreed vehemently with his policies. If he fails to see that justice is done in this case I will lose what shred of respect I have left for the man…and anyone that would defend him. If this is what the Bush administration is about…doing nothing when Americans gang rape an American, any claims people may make about Bush and company being Godly or on the moral high ground are just a steaming pile of cow manure. I might also add it’s time for Americans who have sanctimoniously complained about how women are treated in the Muslim world…to take a long hard luck at our own country and the way it is run, nu?

Anyone who thinks there is an excuse for the Bush administration’s actions (or lack thereof) in this case…is at best denying justice to the victim of a terrible crime. God will not be fooled by legal shenanigans, weasel words, or spin. It’s time for Bush and his remaining supporters to step up to the plate and act on the principles they claim to stand for.

But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die.

But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:

For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her.

Deuteronomy 22:25-27 (King James Bible)

(The above image of Jamie Leigh Jones is claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law. It is not being used for profit and it is central to illustrating the post. Credit: ABC News. How would you feel if she was your sister or daughter? And it’s not hopeless, I notice the Drudge Report is covering this story as well.)