I would hope that this is more a result of our esteemed president's limited vocabulary than of his actual beliefs. To call something absurd... well, let me dig out the dictionary...
Absurd: contrary to all reason or common sense; laughably foolish.
So here's what he said:
Q Thank you, sir. Mr. President, recently, Amnesty International said you have established "a new gulag" of prisons around the world, beyond the reach of the law and decency. I'd like your reaction to that, and also your assessment of how it came to this, that that is a view not just held by extremists and anti-Americans, but by groups that have allied themselves with the United States government in the past -- and what the strategic impact is that in many places of the world, the United States these days, under your leadership, is no longer seen as the good guy.
THE PRESIDENT: I'm aware of the Amnesty International report, and it's absurd. It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that is -- promotes freedom around the world. When there's accusations made about certain actions by our people, they're fully investigated in a transparent way. It's just an absurd allegation.
In terms of the detainees, we've had thousands of people detained. We've investigated every single complaint against the detainees. It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of -- and the allegations -- by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble -- that means not tell the truth. And so it was an absurd report. It just is. And, you know -- yes, sir.
Whew. He was asked a question about the Amnesty Int'l. report and his assessment of why our former allies are joining much of the world in outrage at our various indiscretions, and he answered by saying "absurd" four times. Not the most diplomatic tact, in fact in my most humble opinion if we could reincarnate Hitler as a chimp he would answer questions much in this manner, "It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of -- and the allegations -- by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble -- that means not tell the truth. And so it was an absurd report. It just is. And, you know -- yes, sir."
Yes... sir...
That bit has to give you a queesy chuckle if you have any affinity at all for basic grammar and/or things that make sense. I mean really, Amnesty International based some of their allegations on reports from people who had been detained? WTF, that's crazy. Not only that, but why were these people released? Were we just sick of feeding them, or were they innocent maybe? And did you notice the only fancy word? Disassemble... he says it means to "...not tell the truth." Apparently he knows more than one word for lying... Disassemble means "to take apart," but hey.
It's fairly well known that we detain people without due process and very much not transparently. This goes against our own principles, yet we call the world's concerns "absurd." The president himself cited our noble principles when criticizing another country...
Q The former head of Russia's oil company, Yukos, was sentenced to nine years in a prison camp today. Do you think the Kremlin went after him because he was a political threat? Are there any repercussions to U.S.-Russian relations as a result of this case?
THE PRESIDENT: I expressed my concerns about the case to President Putin because, as I explained to him, here you're innocent until proven guilty, and it appeared to us, or at least people in my administration, that it looked like he had been judged guilty prior to having a fair trial. In other words, he was put in prison, and then was tried...
So there you have it, bunch of mangled new english though it is. You too could piece together parts of this grammatical wreckage to prove any point that you wish. I don't know why I bother. Developing...
:: Damien 5/31/2005 [+] ::
