"Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly." -- Attorney General John Ashcroft, in one of many meetings about using torture.
The Bush Administration knew about it. The Cheney Cabal pushed for using more brutal methods.
As horrific as the report is turning out to be, it is also a profile in cowardice. There was no acknowledgement of the Bush Administration's demands that people be tortured. And the Obama Administration, aka MTAHNS, refused to turn over nearly ten thousand documents to the investigators. Obama opposed the CIA turning anything whatsoever over to the Senate inquiry, which makes Obama, for trying to cover up the commission of war crimes, as culpable as Bush.
The CIA and the Department of Defense committed war crimes. They committed the sort of crimes that, nearly seventy years ago, we executed enemy prisoners for doing similar things.
But they were not rogue agencies. The CIA and the military did what their bosses demanded of them. Which is not an excuse, but an explanation.
The release of the Senate report is a laudable step. But it is also a stark example of the shitty tendency of bureaucracy to blame the underlings for following the orders of the bosses.
Which leads me to this: We should either open a prosecution of the senior members of the Bush Administration for what they did, or pardon everyone who was convicted for torturing prisoners at Abu Graib. Either we follow through on being a nation of laws or embrace that we are a nation of war criminals. There really isn't any middle ground.
As for the Wingnut Weasels who are, to this day, defending the use of torture and decrying the release of the report about things the entire world knows that we did anyway, those folks are showing themselves to be beneath contempt. Their waving the bloody flag of patriotism as a justification for torturing people is simply despicable.
All honor to John McCain, for breaking ranks with the Pro-Torture/Republican Party on this issue.
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Slava Ukraini!
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
4 comments:
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Seldom agree with Senator McCain, applaud him here. AC2usn
ReplyDeleteI too for once agree with "Grampa Walnuts". Scary isn't it?
ReplyDeleteYes also, there will be No Justice if the people that ordered this escape. Crimes Against Humanity, it's No Joke.
w3ski
If you want a little conspiracy theory, the TV show 24 premiered in 2001, laying the groundwork for torture to be acceptable in the minds of the American public.
ReplyDeleteMarc, no conspiracy theory is necessary. The Bush Administration didn't have a firm grasp on reality; it was clear to even the casual observer that they were taking their cues from fiction.
ReplyDelete