THE COMFY CHAIR!!!
This torture thing doesn’t seem to be going away. No, I’m not talking about the prospect of Tommy Maddox starting another game this weekend (Big Ben will play, that’s my gut talking). I’m talking about the embarrassing treatment of individuals in the custody of the US government. And here’s the worst part about it: of all the shitty things this administration’s done, I’m probably least concerned about this particular issue.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely in the “Torture is Bad, M’kay” corner. I would just like to think that people are equally worried about all the other things the Village Idiot has lied about.
Let’s assume that maybe 20% of the people in Gitmo are actually terrorists and know something. That’s probably a super high number, but you have to keep in mind that the sun shines on a monkey’s ass from time to time. I do believe that we should do whatever we can to get information out of those 20%. In those instances, I’m pro-torture. The problem is, there’s 80% of the time that these dumb asses are torturing people that have no idea what’s going on. I have absolutely no confidence in anybody involved in this regime recognizing the difference between those that know and those that don’t. Therefore, I have to be completely anti-torture. Breaking more eggs than necessary to make the omelet just makes for a shitty tasting omelet.
Right now, the administration has to deal with the fact that they’re caught on tape frying civilians in Falluja with white phosphorous. Not good times. They are obviously claiming that they used the stuff merely as a burning agent: clear our buildings and weed the bad guy out of the fox hole. Obviously, this is bull shit. They’re covered in a mountain of bullshit. And for whatever reason, this torture thing is what people keep latching on to. It’s probably because they actually do think that Americans are indeed better than everyone else – the age old reason why foreigners rightfully hate us. Part of being better than other people is WE DON’T TORTURE THE WRONG PEOPLE!!!
This is the 4th or 5th separate torture episode since the start of the Iraq war. It’s also possible people are latching onto the “We don’t torture” lie because evidence to the contrary continue to pop up every few months. There’s really only so many times that you can sell a lie as the truth.
The lie that I’m REALLY hoping people catch on to, because this is the one with some serious consequences, is the entire rationale behind the War in Iraq and the false pretenses that were sold to the Congressfolk that approved use of force. While this one’s not really sticking yet, we’re in the middle of the 2nd round on it. Round 1 was the Downing Street memo. Round 2 is this whole idea of Bush’s that war critics are trying to “Rewrite history” when Democratic Senators actually grow backbones and ask for a hearing on the subject. Actually, the critics are just asserting that you rewrote the intelligence.
My point is, while torture is bad, it’s probably not the worst thing this administration’s done nor is it the biggest lie they’ve told. The problem, from the stand point of someone who thinks the Village Idiot should be brought up on criminal charges, is that there really aren’t any repercussions if we ARE torturing people. We’ve already said that we are above the Geneva Contention. Other than a drop in poll numbers, there’s not a whole heck of a lot that will come of this. But it could be a seed of light that exposes all the other contemptuous crap he’s pulled.
I really hope the torturing stops because it’s wrong. But I hope the ire it has caused is just enough to spread like a wild fire.
>>An interesting side thought that I had after I finished this and re-read it with the title: the worst long term consequence of the Spanish Inquisition was that Spain drove out it’s middle class and it is only just now recovering from the ramifications of those actions, but the average person remembers it as a terrible time when torture was used on innocent people. Bush right now is killing the middle class with an abundance of domestic policies to protect the rich as teh expense of the middle class. Is it possible, 100 years from now, Americans will look back at the Village Idiot’s Presidency and chastise it for his torturing of innocent people while wondering where the middle class has gone?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely in the “Torture is Bad, M’kay” corner. I would just like to think that people are equally worried about all the other things the Village Idiot has lied about.
Let’s assume that maybe 20% of the people in Gitmo are actually terrorists and know something. That’s probably a super high number, but you have to keep in mind that the sun shines on a monkey’s ass from time to time. I do believe that we should do whatever we can to get information out of those 20%. In those instances, I’m pro-torture. The problem is, there’s 80% of the time that these dumb asses are torturing people that have no idea what’s going on. I have absolutely no confidence in anybody involved in this regime recognizing the difference between those that know and those that don’t. Therefore, I have to be completely anti-torture. Breaking more eggs than necessary to make the omelet just makes for a shitty tasting omelet.
Right now, the administration has to deal with the fact that they’re caught on tape frying civilians in Falluja with white phosphorous. Not good times. They are obviously claiming that they used the stuff merely as a burning agent: clear our buildings and weed the bad guy out of the fox hole. Obviously, this is bull shit. They’re covered in a mountain of bullshit. And for whatever reason, this torture thing is what people keep latching on to. It’s probably because they actually do think that Americans are indeed better than everyone else – the age old reason why foreigners rightfully hate us. Part of being better than other people is WE DON’T TORTURE THE WRONG PEOPLE!!!
This is the 4th or 5th separate torture episode since the start of the Iraq war. It’s also possible people are latching onto the “We don’t torture” lie because evidence to the contrary continue to pop up every few months. There’s really only so many times that you can sell a lie as the truth.
The lie that I’m REALLY hoping people catch on to, because this is the one with some serious consequences, is the entire rationale behind the War in Iraq and the false pretenses that were sold to the Congressfolk that approved use of force. While this one’s not really sticking yet, we’re in the middle of the 2nd round on it. Round 1 was the Downing Street memo. Round 2 is this whole idea of Bush’s that war critics are trying to “Rewrite history” when Democratic Senators actually grow backbones and ask for a hearing on the subject. Actually, the critics are just asserting that you rewrote the intelligence.
My point is, while torture is bad, it’s probably not the worst thing this administration’s done nor is it the biggest lie they’ve told. The problem, from the stand point of someone who thinks the Village Idiot should be brought up on criminal charges, is that there really aren’t any repercussions if we ARE torturing people. We’ve already said that we are above the Geneva Contention. Other than a drop in poll numbers, there’s not a whole heck of a lot that will come of this. But it could be a seed of light that exposes all the other contemptuous crap he’s pulled.
I really hope the torturing stops because it’s wrong. But I hope the ire it has caused is just enough to spread like a wild fire.
>>An interesting side thought that I had after I finished this and re-read it with the title: the worst long term consequence of the Spanish Inquisition was that Spain drove out it’s middle class and it is only just now recovering from the ramifications of those actions, but the average person remembers it as a terrible time when torture was used on innocent people. Bush right now is killing the middle class with an abundance of domestic policies to protect the rich as teh expense of the middle class. Is it possible, 100 years from now, Americans will look back at the Village Idiot’s Presidency and chastise it for his torturing of innocent people while wondering where the middle class has gone?
posted by RauluaP at 12:24 PM
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