Slamming Sullivan Over Abu Ghraib

18 May, 2005 by John Hawkins

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There are a variety of reasons that I don’t read Andrew Sullivan anymore including the fact that he’s a pretend conservative who voted for John Kerry, is inconsistent, confused, intellectually dishonest, obsessed with gay marriage, & loathes religious people.

But today, via via Glenn Reynolds (“SULLIVAN seems to think that I should be blogging more about Abu Ghraib,”) I learned that there’s a new reason to dislike Andrew Sullivan: he’s still blathering on about Abu Ghraib.

After heading over to the Daily Dish, I found references to Abu Ghraib in 5 different posts. This is for a wildly overblown story that broke more than a year ago.

In my experience, people who go on and on about Abu Ghraib — which fits Sullivan to a T — almost universally either detest George Bush, the war in Iraq, the military, America, or some combination thereof and love to use Abu Ghraib as a club to hammer away at the targets of their wrath.

Here’s the truth: Abu Ghraib wasn’t very important. In my opinion, it shouldn’t even merit a line in the history books. In fact, the only reason the whole story didn’t immediately disappear right down the memory hole is because the out-of-control yahoos abusing prisoners there were dumb enough to take pictures.

Back in May of 2004, I pointed out how incredibly out of proportion the reaction was to what actually happened:

“That being said, the media’s general reaction to this situation has been staggeringly overwrought & monstrously overblown. This week, because of what went on at Abu Ghraib prison, I’ve heard us compared to Hitler & Saddam, calls for Rumsfeld to resign, heard that our reputations will never recover, comparisons to concentration camps & Mai Lai….

Please, what a load of sanctimonious hyperbole that is.

…The reason what happened at Abu Ghraib has been such a big sensation is because it is such an aberration and so out of line with American values. So the apologies and changes we’ve made were appropriate, but so is a little perspective…

A year later, all of that is truer than ever.

You know what else is true? Aside from a few liberals & long-time American haters, very few people think less of the Bush administration, the military, or the US because of Abu Ghraib. In short, most people just don’t care very much.

And the pundits like Sullivan who are still fixated on it? They come across like diehard fans of some eighties hair band — and they just won’t shut up about how they once had a 5 minute long conversation with the lead singer in a Philadelphia Waffle House — which is part of the reason so many people are telling them, “Sorry to cut you short, but I have somewhere else to be”…