BULGARIAN RICE
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, the Valkerie friend of the Four Horsemen, today called for Libya to free five Bulgarian nurses held since 1999 in one of its prisons. No, this isn't one of my "Onion-style," fake news stories. Although the tale of five Eastern European nurses detained in a Middle Eastern prison does sound like a late night Skinamax flick. Who's the secretary of education? American teenage boys have gone far too long in a state of ignorance regarding Bulgarian history, and that movie would be just the thing to set that oversight straight.
"The Bulgarian nurses have been too long in captivity," Rice actually told a group in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. No one can confirm reports of factory machines going all night, making "Free the Bulgarian Five" buttons, but I'll update you as soon as I know.
Ok, I don't wanna make light about these women. Apparently they were trying to do some good for kids with HIV, and for their trouble they end up rotting away in some shithole Qaddafi probably built to house captured American airmen who survived the plunge into the Burning Lake of Fire that was to be the Gulf of Sidra (was it "Burning Lake of Fire," or was it a "Sea of Blood"? Maybe "Burning Lake of Fire" was John Milton, not the Crazy Colonel. Anyone?). They should free these poor women.
But with everything going on in the world with Iran, Iraq, China, Russia, Condi's in Bulgaria, playing modern day Moses, telling Mad Moammar to let her nurses go? Doesn't she have some shoes to buy? Hurricane season's only a month away afterall.
Ahhh, maybe I should lighten up, enjoy the fact that the Administration's working for freedom. Or . . . maybe I should just scroll through the story and note that we also want increased access to Bulgarian military facilities, perhaps to supply additional launching points for any adventurism in Iran.
Hey, I hope Condi's efforts get these nurses out of jail, and if the Bulgarian government rewards us for our efforts by giving us access to military facilities that's good. What the hell? But, man, if this makes it any easier for us to further stretch ourselves through military action we're economically, diplomatically and logistically unfit for, then I have to say I'd prefer to see the unlucky ladies stay where they are.
"The Bulgarian nurses have been too long in captivity," Rice actually told a group in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. No one can confirm reports of factory machines going all night, making "Free the Bulgarian Five" buttons, but I'll update you as soon as I know.
Ok, I don't wanna make light about these women. Apparently they were trying to do some good for kids with HIV, and for their trouble they end up rotting away in some shithole Qaddafi probably built to house captured American airmen who survived the plunge into the Burning Lake of Fire that was to be the Gulf of Sidra (was it "Burning Lake of Fire," or was it a "Sea of Blood"? Maybe "Burning Lake of Fire" was John Milton, not the Crazy Colonel. Anyone?). They should free these poor women.
But with everything going on in the world with Iran, Iraq, China, Russia, Condi's in Bulgaria, playing modern day Moses, telling Mad Moammar to let her nurses go? Doesn't she have some shoes to buy? Hurricane season's only a month away afterall.
Ahhh, maybe I should lighten up, enjoy the fact that the Administration's working for freedom. Or . . . maybe I should just scroll through the story and note that we also want increased access to Bulgarian military facilities, perhaps to supply additional launching points for any adventurism in Iran.
Hey, I hope Condi's efforts get these nurses out of jail, and if the Bulgarian government rewards us for our efforts by giving us access to military facilities that's good. What the hell? But, man, if this makes it any easier for us to further stretch ourselves through military action we're economically, diplomatically and logistically unfit for, then I have to say I'd prefer to see the unlucky ladies stay where they are.
posted by Mike at 9:04 AM
6 Comments:
"I'd prefer to see the unlucky ladies stay where they are."
Huh?
If freeing the nurses means that we'll put troops in Bulgaria, with the goal of using them for some excursion into Iran, then I'd rather see them stay in jail.
Obviously, if I though we were leveraging the situation only to free them, then cool, let's do it. But I see a causal chain here. And I don't like the end result.
You're right, Mike. While I obviously don't want them to pay the price, I find it impossible to believe Rice dropped into Sofia because she's personally invested in the plight of these nurses.
Simply put, nothing the Bushies do is because it's the right thing to do, it is always because money or power (for them or their benefactors) is the reward at the end of the task.
Mike this time I have to disagree.
Doing the right thing for the wrong reason is still doing the right thing.
Karen-
I hear you, and I assume Applesaucer was making the same point.
But let's play the arguendo game, and ask a hypothetical: What if there was an explicit quid pro quo at work, and we agreed to work to free the nurses *only if* Bulgaria granted us access to military facilities.
Now, knowing that these facilities would be used to mount an attack on Iran, what will you think of the "rights & wrongs" when Americans & Iranians (not to mention nurses sent by the UN) start dying?
I suspect you & I feel the same on this issue -- in the real world -- but just throwing out the question.
This also sounds like a high-profile human-interest situation to me--nurses, on a humanitarian mission, very righteously outrage-making. And I bet we might be treated to all five's biographies and they'll be made out to be heroes and endless media attention will be given to them, while other much, much more earth-shaking stories go under- or unreported. Bread and circuses.
Free them if we can, absolutely.
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