The breathtaking superficiality of Joe Biden’s thinking

was on display again today when he opined on Meet the Press that the hanging of Saddam Hussein was “Abu Ghraib all over again.” At Abu Ghraib, Iraqi prisoners who may or may not have been been minor criminals were tortured. At the hanging of Saddam, a mass murderer was taunted.
The taunting of Saddam was a bad thing, as I said very shortly after it was reported, mostly because the taunts from influential members of the government invoked the name of Saddam wannabe, Moqtada al Sadr, and thus provided further evidence that the government is headed in the wrong direction. But the taunting has little to do with Abu Ghraib except for the fact that events there were also blown out of proportion by critics of the war.
JOHN adds: The “taunting” of Saddam Hussein, as best I can determine, consisted of somebody saying “Moqtada, Moqtada”–which is a bad thing for the reason Paul notes, but hardly a form of torture–and someone else saying “Go to hell,” to which Saddam replied, “You go to hell!”
Sorry, but any defensive back in the National Football League has been taunted worse by every wide receiver who ever scored a touchdown on him. Being hanged is a tough thing. Being told to “go to hell” is hardly the factor that makes the experience a negative one. I think the fact that the “taunting” of Saddam has been considered a major news story is one of the most remarkable manifestations of the whole upside-down world of modern media in which we live.

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