"A force of freedom and a force for peace"

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.

Comments

[SteveB]

Wow. My head hurts just trying to decipher those two paragraphs from the Times. To start with, "Muntader" al-Zaidi (you have "Muntadhar") is the shoe-throwing journalist, right? So Uday is his brother? So let's try to parse this:

Uday al-Zaidi said his brother [his brother Muntader?] 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 [shoe-throwing journalist] told his brother [Uday] that the men had stopped beating him and did not force him to write or sign anything. The journalist [Muntader] said that a letter to the prime minister written by him [Muntader] from jail expressing regret for the attack had not been coerced, his brother [OK, now I'm really lost - his brother Uday, who is quoted in paragraph 1 saying Muntader was tortured?] said. It was unclear if this was the same letter Mr. Maliki referred to [that's not the only thing that's unclear].

And one more time, just for fun:
"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.

The journalist is telling us what his brother said? His brother is telling us what the journalist said? I give up.

[John Caruso]

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one. My only even slightly plausible theory was that they were referring to another brother, since I've read about at least two others (Dargham and Maytham) in other stories. But they're not mentioned in this one, and the sentence just after those two paragraphs is: "Uday al-Zaidi said his brother told him that he had bought the shoes — used — at a market in Cairo." So if they switched brothers from one paragraph to the next they sure made every attempt to keep it a secret.

The spelling of al-Zaidi's name changes in nearly every story I've read, so I picked the one I thought looked the best.

[SteveB]

Hey, did you know the Times has a grammar blog which "examines questions of grammar, usage and style encountered by writers and editors of The Times"? Right now, he's considering the important issue of dangling modifiers.

Unfortunately, you can't email the grammar-blogger with a question about a sentence like "The journalist said ... his brother said." So instead I emailed the author of the piece, with a polite question about which brother was quoting who. Once, I actually got a reply back from a Timesman in response to an emailed question about some information omitted from his article. He was probably fired immediately afterwards for not being busy enough.

But hey, the semester's over and I have some time on my hands (obviously).

[Harold M]

I wonder if the incoherence and inconsistencies are the result of frustrated, possibly rebellious choking on what is clearly a heaping helping of hogwash. I'd like to think so.

[KDelphi]

I'm so confused!!

[Save the Oocytes]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one. I went over the last paragraph about five times trying to parse it.