Tim Blair

WESTERN PHRASE INTRODUCED TO IRAQ

The de-brutalising of Iraq continues, as Bernard B. Kerik writes:

Iraq is now a different country. The rebuilding of the infrastructure has begun and the streets are full of life, with bustling markets and shops. But reconstruction isn't just about bricks and mortar:Iraq's civic structures were in tatters, too, especially its Baathist police force, an organization that had, in any case, no credibility with the Iraqi people. My job was to assist in setting up this force again, with proper training, new values, a respect for human rights. The latter phrase -- "human rights" -- has been absent from Iraq's vocabulary for decades. Certainly, no one has heard it uttered, until now, within the four walls of a police station. The magnitude of our task can be measured from the fact that we had to teach cops that when you pull a man suspected of a crime into the station, you can't just hang him upside-down and beat him with an iron bar.

I’ll never understand why the “Free Mumia” crowd never embraced the chance to free a whole country.

Posted by Tim Blair at September 29, 2003 03:07 AM