Embarrassing Hypocrisy on Human Rights

It's good that the U.S. Government is trying to get Iran to change its awful human rights record. However, the hypocrisy of the situation is stunning. It shows just how difficult it is for America to press a pro-democracy, pro-human rights agenda with this administration's credibility in shreds:

"The Bush administration accused Iran on Tuesday of violating the rights of Arabs and other minority groups and urged restraint in dealing with them." - Associated Press, 4/19/05

VERSUS

In May of 2004, President Bush condemned the mistreatment of Arab prisoners in Iraq, claiming he shared "a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated." Yet, weeks later, Newsweek reported "Bush, along with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft, signed off on a secret system of detention and interrogation that opened the door" to widespread abuse of Arab prisoners in Iraq. The Magazine noted that "it was an approach that they adopted to sidestep the historical safeguards of the Geneva Conventions, which protect the rights of detainees and prisoners of war."