What's Good for the Goose...

The title of a recent piece in the New York Times, "Security Forces--Iraq Stumbling in Bid to Purge Its Rogue Police (0/17/06)" is self-explanatory. However, one paragraph in the story was most instructive:

"There is little accountability. The government has stopped allowing joint Iraq and American teams to inspect Iraqi prisons. No senior ministry officials have been prosecuted on charges of detainee mistreatment in spite of fresh discoveries of abuse and torture... Internal investigations into secret prisons, corruption and other criminal activity are often blocked."

Keep in mind, this quote is about the Iraqi Interior Ministry--not the U.S. Department of Defense--both of which are supported by your tax dollars.

Let us never fear that the Iraqis are not able students, nor that our lessons by example on democracy have been lost on them. The hypocrisy of my childhood lessons from adults who should have known better--"Do as I say, not as I do"--comes to mind. It is no more convincing in the State arena than it was on the personal level. As they say, the personal is the political.