Not as I do

One of the fears when the Abu Gharib scandal came to light as well as the current administrations seeming indifference to torture in general was how other countries would react to any future human rights admonishments from our country.

Sadly, those fears have been realized again:

China accused the United States on Thursday of using double standards to judge human rights in other countries, adding to a growing list of nations suggesting the government that produced the Abu Ghraib prison abuses has no business commenting on what happens elsewhere.

"No country should exclude itself from the international human rights development process or view itself as the incarnation of human rights that can reign over other countries and give orders to the others," Premier Wen Jiabao's cabinet declared, three days after the State Department criticized China in its annual human rights report.

The sharp Chinese retort, which contained a long list of what it labeled U.S. human rights abuses at home and abroad, came directly from Wen's cabinet, giving it more weight than a Foreign Ministry comment or an editorial. In addition, it used unusually frontal language, charging for example that the United States "frequently commits wanton slaughters during external invasions and military attacks."

What's the outcome of it all? Probably nothing. The administration probably doesn't put much creedence in what China has to say. It's just goes to show you parents out there the fragility of the "Do as I say" defense when it comes to your children.