So Much for Liberation

The fall-back position for a lot of Dubya apologists for the fiasco in Iraq is that at least the Iraqis are better off under US occupation than Saddam's rule. "Remember the torture rooms?", they plead. Well, to quoth Zappa, the torture never stops. According to the United Nations's torture expert, there is more torture going on nowadays in Iraq than in Saddam's time:

Manfred Nowak said the situation in Iraq was "out of control", with abuses being committed by security forces, militia groups and anti-US insurgents.

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"What most people tell you is that the situation as far as torture is concerned now in Iraq is totally out of hand," the Austrian law professor said.

"The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein," he added.

Granted, this is a case of Iraqis torturing Iraqis, rather than the population being abused by US soldiers, but it doesn't speak very well of our ability to control the situation over there.