In reporting last week on U.S. efforts to bolster human rights in 98 countries, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration is "on the right side of freedom's divide" and is obligated to "help those who are unlucky enough to have been born on the wrong side of that divide."
Rice's remarks did eloquent service to the idea held dear by most Americans that this country is, or should be, the most exemplary advocate for the rights and dignities that are the bedrock of free societies.
It is a demanding role, one that requires us at times to recognize, however painfully, when our failure to adhere to ideals of justice makes our criticism of authoritarian regimes ring hollow.
The Bush administration's ultimate casting of its invasion of Iraq as a mission to bring freedom and democracy to much of the Middle East is undermined by the piecemeal unfolding of the prisoner abuse scandal that erupted a year ago amid images of hooded and abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
Last week, for example, Army officials announced they had decided, against the recommendation of military investigators, not to prosecute 17 soldiers in the deaths of three prisoners. So far, 11 members of the U.S. Army face murder or other charges relating to some of the 27 detainee deaths in Iraq or Afghanistan reported by the military.
Rice's nearly 300-page report made no mention of our prisoner abuse scandal. Amnesty International praised the report's initiatives but said the scandal is hurting U.S. credibility. The human rights organization singled out the administration's practice of ferrying terrorism suspects to the very countries that the State Department has condemned for torturing prisoners.
Given the unlikelihood of a forthright and independent investigation of the scandal, Rice's worthwhile campaign to shore up human rights around the world will, unfortunately, carry an unavoidable scent of hypocrisy.
