"A force of freedom and a force for peace"

By: John Caruso of The Distant Ocean

Here's what George Bush said at his press conference last week in Iraq, shortly before Muntadhar al-Zaidi humiliated him in front of the entire world:

This is a future of what we've been fighting for -- a strong and capable democratic Iraq that will be a force of freedom and a force for peace ...

And this is what's happened to al-Zaidi since he was brutally beaten by Iraqi security forces and taken into custody:

One of Zaidi's brothers, Uday, told AFP he had been able to visit him in custody for the first time on Sunday and charged that the journalist had been tortured by his captors "for 36 hours continuously" and forced to sign a statement.

"He has been hit with iron rods and cables," the brother said.

"There is very severe bleeding in his eye, and he has bruises on his feet and nose, and he was also tortured with electric shocks.

"He was forced to sign a statement confessing to receiving money from different groups and saying that he did not throw his shoes for the honor of Iraq."

Yes, thank goodness we've been fighting for a strong and capable democratic Iraq that will be a force of freedom and a force for peace.  You can only imagine what might have happened to al-Zaidi otherwise.

NEW YORK TIMES POWER-SERVICING BONUS: If anyone can reconcile these two consecutive paragraphs from the New York Times article about al-Zaidi's torture, I'd love to hear how:

Uday al-Zaidi said his brother had said: "After the torture and the cold-water shower, I told them to bring me a blank sheet of paper and I would sign it, and they could write whatever they wanted. I am ready to say I am a terrorist or whatever you want."

But Muntader al-Zaidi told his brother that the men had stopped beating him and did not force him to write or sign anything. The journalist said that a letter to the prime minister written by him from jail expressing regret for the attack had not been coerced, his brother said. It was unclear if this was the same letter Mr. Maliki referred to.

I'm always impressed at how far the Times will go to pass along official spin, but this is really above and beyond the call of duty, like they just allowed the Iraqi government to insert a paragraph into the article wherever they wanted.