This evening George Hook was discussing the Abu Ghraib situation with John Gormley. You know what you're getting with John Gormley. I mean, for God's sake, his proposed response to September 11 was "an unprecedented diplomatic offensive to address the root causes of Islamic aggression".
Gormley's in the Green Party, which today responded to the threat of nuclear terrorism in Europe by calling for the closure of Europe's nuclear power plants. So, while they may be "friends of the Earth", I often think they're fairly distant friends to this planet. And, they're certainly not what you'd call "pro-American".
I wasn't surprised by Gormley's views on the prison scandal. The fact that he believes that this is pretty much representative of the American army and, indeed, the government is par for the course. He's calling on the Irish government to condemn the US government for the prison behavior. {I haven't heard it mentioned yet, but those humiliating pictures from the prison somehow remind me of the scandals in orphanages and other institutions in Ireland.}
But, George Hook is hosting a mainstream newstalk radio program. He could have at least mentioned that President Bush and his administration seem to be scandalized by what went on. He could have mentioned that President Bush had only just completed addressing the people of Iraq through Arabic language t.v. stations. He could have said that it hardly seems like this is American policy seeing as all we know we have learned from the army itself. He could have at least questioned the value of Ireland condemning the actions in the Iraqi prisons when the US administration had already condemned them.
Instead, Hook and Gormley performed a merry little two step about how Ireland has always been on the "right side" in foreign affairs. Weak, awful radio. Uggh.
William says we Americans are slowly taking over in Ireland. I'd be happy if we could take over an hour on the radio once a week.
