When History is written for W and for America
There will be comma after comma after comma, but one sentence will eventually stand alone and out as the single worst thing this country has ever done. America under Bush 43 Tortured. That alone will catapult W to the top of the worst presidents list. He will stand among disgusting men that tortured people. The leader of the “Free World” authorized torture in the name of safety. The irony is amazing in that sentence alone and the people that are unable to see that irony are what make this country less safe.
It will be hard for this country to rebound from this tragedy. Especially when we have one party that refused to accept the illegality of the act and points fingers saying that the other party was aware of it, that we got results or that it isn’t torture or some variation of all the above.
What’s worse is that not only did our military torture, but in the outsourced world our government now believes in we have privatized it. Yes, privitazed torture. Because, we all know that the private sector can do it cheaper and more effectively. Sickening. I can’t even imagine that I served my country anymore. What the hell is wrong with us? That this, this heinous act of violence toward another human being happened and was ok’d by the highest servent of the people, for the people and by the people. Oh, and it was outsourced as a cost cutting measure to save the country money.
We have sunk to a new low as a nation and we are only learning how low we, yes WE allowed this country to sink. All in the name of safety. Privatized Torture. Pol Pot must be wondering why he didn’t think of privatizing torture first
Former U.S. officials say the two men were essentially the architects of the CIA’s 10-step interrogation plan that culminated in waterboarding.
Associates say the two made good money doing it, boasting of being paid a $1,000 a day by the CIA to oversee the use of the techniques on top al Qaeda suspects at CIA secret sites.
Why is it so hard to figure out that ‘they’ hate us so much. We became the vicious animals that our Government said that THEY were. How are we better than them? Oh, because our government said they are doing it to keep us safe? Well, aren’t they doing what they are doing to keep their people safe from us? Jesus Christ in Heaven I am ashamed to be an American, strike that, I’m ashamed of my government. We are paying guys $1000 a day to torture? What is that?
How hard is it to process that torture is illegal, which I think in this country means it is wrong to do. Where are the people that think this is a “Christian Nation”? I’m pretty sure in the Bible there has to be something about this whole torture thing being sort of a no-no. I could be wrong. After all some of our daily commenters are against abortion but are fine with Nuclear war. My guess is the “christiany” people found a loophole in Leviticus that makes not quite killing people in the name of freedom and liberty okey-dokey.
What is alarming though and what people refuse to discuss is that other countries that are pretty friendly to us have put us on a pretty sweet list saying we torture. One being that country that sits above us and has pretty decent beer and talks with a funny accent.
Pretty Sweet list of Countries That Canada puts us in with too:
Iran
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Afghanistan
China
Rock on Baby! And yes I realize that Canada removed our name later, but I’m confident that our name will go back up on that list once they catch that news their Canadian citizens read to us most nights. And I’m not Done, I’m about to quote the National Review (where’s Hube?)
When you ask the question this way, one obvious point stands out: we keep beating the torturing nations. The regimes in the modern world that have used systematic torture and directly threatened the survival of the United States — Nazi Germany, WWII-era Japan, and the Soviet Union — have been annihilated, while we are the world’s leading nation. The list of other torturing nations governed by regimes that would like to do us serious harm, but lack the capacity for this kind of challenge because they are economically underdeveloped (an interesting observation in itself), are not places that most people reading this blog would ever want to live as a typical resident. They have won no competition worth winning. The classically liberal nations of Western Europe, North America, and the Pacific that led the move away from systematic government-sponsored torture are the world’s winners.
That’s right! The Nazi argument used by a National Review writer….and he was referencing America.
Torture is illegal. PERIOD. We privatized torture. We tried some Japanese citizens for waterboarding, which is torture. PERIOD. We waterboarded therefor we TORTURED. Therefor someone committed an ILLEGAL act and needs to be held accountable. It’s not a hard argument to make, what’s hard is to try and make it sound like it was ok.
America Tortured it’s own Citizens and the Citizens of other nations. I remember when I used to watch movies and think how terrible Russia was and hearing about Turkish Prison’s. Now, we torture and are the bad guys. I can’t imagine why ‘they’ hate us…It’s soooooo hard to fathom.
Not only did America under the repub rule torture – they tortured people to death.
W kept America safe and rolled back international terrorism with his unflinching iron will. That will be the headline.
David will be reading different books than the rest of us.
Very well put DV.
W kept America safe…
…by ignoring warning of 9/11 attacks and taking a record amount of vacation his first year in office
…and rolled back international terrorism…
…by creating terrorist hotbed in Iraq while ignoring Bin Laden in Afghanistan …
… with his unflinching iron will.
21%ers see “unflinching will” where the rest of the world sees anti-curious assholery.
David lives on Fantasy Island. ’nuff said.
David so wishes he was born centuries ago so he could have been part of the inquisition and kept us safe from witches and heretics.
Were you touched by W when he tucked you in for beddy-bye, David?
Gawd…wipe your chin.
Torture worked fabulously during the Spanish Inquisition. I’m sure they got lots of info on how these witches had intercourse with the devil, how they made that cow’s milk dry up and how they gave that woman the evil eye and caused her to get sick. Torture worked! There was a fabulous story on NPR yesterday morning about how the military had to clean up the interrogation program after the abuses of Abu Ghraib had been revealed. They totally revamped to use the techniques they had been using, and within 2 months they found Zarqawi. They had been torturing for 3 years without success.
I’m asking for your help. I’m planning on writing an anti-torture resolution to be presented at the DE Democratic party convention. I’ll probably write two – one urging a Special Prosecutor and prosecutions of lawbreakers and one concerning the impeachment of Jay Bybee. Anyone have any ideas? I’ve never written a resolution before.
The only way that history writes that “he kept us safe” is to ignore the fact that 9/11 happened on his watch. There are a bunch of families who want to know why he wasn’t more vigilant before that. And I think that the people in Spain, Bali, London and others will NOT agree that he rolled back any terrorism.
Get used to it David — the President you unflinchingly and unequivocally supported (and still do, for that matter) is in fact, The.Worst.President.Ever.
Yay UI!
Is the resolution that got passed in CA any help as a model?
Very well written; however, I think its worth pointing out that this is certainly not the only instance of human rights failures for the US. Look at the regimes that we supported in the Cold War years. Also, how many other times have we tortured when it WASN’T exposed?
I love this piece, DV. You’ve summed it up perfectly.
What have we become as a nation?
how many other times have we tortured when it WASN’T exposed?
Even if we did – and we surely did at some point – we didn’t pretend it was right.
This is very good, DV. Perhaps the NJ would be interested in it for their Perspectives column.
“…by ignoring warning of 9/11 attacks and taking a record amount of vacation his first year in office”
“The only way that history writes that “he kept us safe” is to ignore the fact that 9/11 happened on his watch. ”
9/11 would have never happened if Clinton didn’t put oil before the safety of Americans. That cannot even be disputed at this point unless you are rewriting history.
Donfeces, if you think this is the worst thing in American history, you are even dumber than I thought…and that is truly saying something. Please, please, please stop trying to put forth these sad attempts at enlightened opinions. It is truly pathetic.
I am not surprised, however, that a blatant racist like you would think that water-boarding a mass murderer was worse than the years and years of institutional slavery we had here! I guess that wasn’t as bad because, after all, they were black, right don?
wow – that was substance-free, BL.
Clinton continued the oil suckatude towards Saudis, but he didn’t start it….Nixon would be a better target.
Though I will say slavery is certainly worse than torture….actually, by definition – torture is a part of slavery.
BTW, “they” hated us long before we ever “tortured” anyone you dope!
We both know donfeces didn’t mean it that way, VC.
And certainly BushCo put oil before Americans — which is why they decided to invade Iraq instead of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabia where most of the hijackers came from and is still a supporter of jihadists worldwide.
…and so therefore we are justifying in not-torturing them. Because not-torture works.
Question for ya, fucktard: If not-torture works, wouldn’t real torture work even better? So why aren’t we using real torture, instead of not-torture?
yup, they’ve hated our actions for a long time now….but you couldn’t ask for a better recruitment augment for the other side though…
And don’t talk about dope around the man….unless you got some! 😉
We don’t torture.
We enhance interrogate people to death.
Torture is illegal rhubarb. I’m starting with that answer…and…well…ending with it.
If you are okay with people breaking silly laws like the ones we enforced on other country’s citizens after WWII then fine. I’m not.
BL,
Yes, they hated us long before…and now they hate us more and have yet one more reason of all the others to hate and recruit more killers of ours.
You can’t waltz into 2 other countries and try to set up a democracy in each while blatantly thumbing your nose at the one you rule.
Yes, I would agree that the way our country treated black people was awful however under the scope of things and how I linked this act to W stay on topic.
I’m not ok with torturing people. Period. Call me a Christian I guess….
The Far Right distorts their religion in the name of politics, rather than shaping their politics to follow their religion.
Who would Jesus torture?
pandora,
The torturers on the right would have been on the side of the Romans, after all, Jesus was a criminal.
… and he was tortured!
I think rhubard was agreeing with you, DV. I think he/she was saying why are they arguing that torture works, yet saying that they didn’t torture. Rhubard has a great point, though. If Bush, Cheney, et al. are convinced that what they did was legal and necessary why are they so afraid of scrutiny?
I still can’t figure out why people who believe it’s ok to kill babies think dripping some water on a blindfolded terrorists head for information (that would save lives) is soooo reprehensible.
No one here thinks it is OK to kill babies.
So guess you have to come up with a much better rationalization of how torture contributes to the culture of life.
because fetuses would be aborted either way, as well as making sure it’s safe so at least it assures the health of the woman.
Simple answer to a simple question.
I can’t figure out why people who think frozen embryos are human beings think it is OK to torture innocent people to death.
No one wants to kill babies. I’m concerned with actual people rather than theoretical people.