Babes Doing the Torture in Iraq

May 3, 2004

First off these pictures of these prisoners of war. You know, the Brits are denying that the pictures that ran in the Daily Mirror are even genuinely and legitimately out of Iraq. Equipment in those pictures they say they never sent to Iraq, uniforms are incorrect, people don't do that. In these American prisoners of war, have you people noticed who the torturers are? Women! The babes. The babes are meting out the torture. Well, I've just been asked if I'm surprised.

You know, I could get into a lot of trouble here with this. No, part of me is not -- yes, I'm surprised. I am surprised. I do not believe -- I will go to my grave placing women on the pedestal of gentleness. On the surface it's a smart move, but in real life it could be incredibly stupid, but regardless - women are tougher than -- you know, we all must be honest about this. I mean, this business of weaker sex is all a bunch of trumped up stuff they teach when you you're five years old and you end up living your whole life that way, and it's just one big mystery that never gets solved.

At any rate, ladies and gentlemen, I just have a tough time believing all this. There's some question now that some of these photos have been doctored and they're not totally legitimate. And I think what needs to happen here -- we need to keep this in perspective.

Here's the way I see this. About as many soldiers are said to be involved in these outrageous acts of torture against the Iraqi prisoners as there have been plagiarizing and fabricating reporters working for the New York Times, USA Today, and other papers around the country. We have as many indecent acts by these soldiers as we have plagiarist reporters working for mainstream media, partisan media institutions here. I mean it's awful when it happens, don't you just hate it when it happens? But it doesn't mean the entire institution is disreputable. It doesn't mean the military is all bad and it doesn't mean that the media is all bad just because you've got some plagiarists out there making things up, making up quotes, making up people, saying they were places where they weren't. You know, torture is torture. Plagiarism is plagiarism.

But I think that we need somebody with expertise to get to the bottom of this. And I think we should send Kerry over there. John Kerry, who has lots of experience in war atrocities. He admitted to committing them. He came back from Vietnam, and he's testifying there before the Senate, he says I did this, and I did that, and what Kerry said he did, is far worse than what's depicted in these pictures. I mean can we be honest here? What Kerry said he did, and what Kerry said other people, other soldiers did in Vietnam -- and, by the way, we need to point out again that he did not report these atrocities when he saw them. He did not go to a commanding officer and say, "This is ridiculous what's happening here, what I saw. We've got to stop this," or he didn't say it's ridiculous what I'm doing. You got to stop me.

No, he waited till he got back home, joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and then started telling these tales, spinning these stories; and the acts that he described, he saw committed by U.S. soldiers, make these torture acts that are ostensibly depicted in these photos rather tame.

Folks, these torture pictures with the women torturers, I mean Marv Albert looking at those pictures would say, "Hey, that doesn't look so bad." You know, if you really look at these pictures, I mean I don't know if it's just me but it looks like anything you'd see Madonna or Britney Spears do on stage. Maybe you can get an NEA grant for something like this. I mean this is something you can see at Lincoln Center from an NEA grant, maybe on Sex in the City: the Movie. I mean, it's just me.