Lileks on the news coverage, specificly Sy Hersh's, of the Abu Ghraib scandal:
Anything on the Berg slaughter? Alas, no. That was a one-off, it seems, an aberration. Move along, nothing to see. Hersh�s article ends: ��We�re giving the world a ready-made excuse to ignore the Geneva Convention. Rumsfeld has lowered the bar.�� Ah. Hereafter the terrorists will be emboldened to saw people�s heads off with dull blades.Then he brings up the UN Oil for Diplomatic Protection investigation, which is given short shrift in the mainstream media, and asks:
Which body acted swiftly to investigate? Which body opened itself to public hearings and condemnations? Which body put the bad guy in the dock, held a trial, and pronounced sentence? . . . Kofi? your move.What makes this such great writing is its economy. He uses irony and sarcasm juxtaposed with plain feeling more deftly than anybody I know (with the possible exception of Mark Steyn), fastfocusing on an angle that lays an issue out and strips it of all the stridulating media sophistry, so that it's left plain and needs no further argument. And he does it in so few words that he has plenty of room to devote the 80% of his bleats to news from Jasperwood.
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