04/23/09:
I'M JUST GONNA SAY IT... ......I support torture. There. I said it.
Well it would *seem* that way, since "torture" now includes sleep-deprivation, and I do that to myself nightly. I guess that makes my three kids torturers too because they sure play a part in that from time to time!
In all seriousness though, hasn't the word kind of lost its meaning when we're equating waterboarding the likes of KSM with slavery and genocide and claiming that our very future existence depends upon the complete outing, prosecution and imprisonment of anyone and everyone even tangentially connected to that act? Context is irrelevant. Intention is irrelevant, the nature of the person being "tortured" is irrelevant. It is much more civilized (I'm told, uncivilized gun-clingin' redneck that I am, I have to BE told) to arrest, humiliate, tar, feather, scapegoat and imprison loyal American citizens who've put their lives and fortunes on the line (as well as those of their families) following the LAW as it was determined not by one all-powerful dictator, but by lawyers, judges and bi-partisan House and Senate sub-committees on intel. Yes, even a dumb hick like I can see how that is ever-so-much more HUMANE and morally above-board. /sarcasm
Well I say SCREW THAT. Bring back common sense. If there's no slippery slope with gay marriage and abortion, then you can bet your ass our citizens (especially since they've sworn under OATH to uphold the Constitution and the laws that pass muster with it and its defenders and protectors) are perfectly capable of differentiating between gratuitous torture of some brown-skinned guys who speak funny, for shits and giggles, and the careful systematic thoroughly documented and approved "harsh" interrogation of a confessed mass-murderer who would happily kill thousands more, as a last resort. Anyone who says they are not needs to have a short chat with Lynndie England. You can't pick and choose your "slippery slide into tyranny," "you're with us or you're against us" bullshit. A straw-man is a straw-man, even if the Wizard's name is "OZbama" (especially, actually, since the straw-man is his favorite rhetorical device!)
[By the way, have you noticed how Glenn Beck is "crazy" to suggest we're on a slippery slide into socialism, but the "Charge Bush! Stop torture! Close GITMO!" crowd is sane to suggest that these things harken our descent into tyranny? /head-desk]
I'm not kidding about my title either. I support this kind of activity, I do. I do NOT support its use willy-nilly, but I refuse to tie the hands of the people who have the unenviable and nearly impossible job of protecting us 24/7 from people who have zero respect for human life, to the point where they'll give up their own to take ours. I'm not talking "eye-for-an-eye" here, I'm saying do what you can within the confines of our values and comfort zone, and if that fails, and it's clear that the person is or purports to be hiding something deadly for Americans, do whatever you have to do to HIM. Don't go after their families, don't touch their kids, I'm just talking about the people in our custody, the ones who are clearly bad actors. And if this requires Presidential approval on a case-by-case basis, FINE, I have no problem with that, just don't rule it out! Maybe it would be better to have the buck stop squarely on the desk of the guy who will be blamed if New York goes up in a mushroom cloud anyway. But the histrionics about what we did in the years immediately following 9/11, and the whining about how we just can't (wrings hands, tears clothing, whips self) allow ourselves to do these things because we are so "moral" a people has got to stop.
Morality MY ASS. This from some of the same people who defend the free speech of pederasts? This from the same people who poo-pooed people who had trouble with the President of the United States LYING UNDER OATH about his dalliances with a woman young enough to be his daughter (and under his employ) while on the clock for the American people? This from the same people who--I am SURE--were briefed on everything we were going to do and everything we got as a result of it and never so much as raised an eyebrow until it was politically expedient for them to do so? This from the same people who think it's moral to bail out everyone under the sun BUT the hard-working Americans who pay their taxes, take on debt they can handle and suffer the failures of losing jobs and going out of business every damn day with dignity and without demanding recompense from the government? THIS from the same people who happily hand the keys to the kingdom to the same people who got us into this mess in the first place, the same people they called "greedy" and "immoral" just a short month ago?
Spare me the moral outrage.
We are now firmly on the path of allowing Americans to die rather than even *intimidating* one hair on one suspected enemy head. I hope someone is keeping detailed records and video logs of every fool holier-than-thou think said by pundits and late-night comedians, as well as every politician so that we can refer back to them when the next attack comes and family members of victims ask "How could this happen? I thought abandoning 'torture' would make us 'safer?'"
This week Obama said it was "worth" whatever would happen because we gave up having whatever intel we could get using these methods. I hope someone has that clip so it can be played in a continuous loop with the aftermath of the destruction on split-screen. I don't hope we need this footage, I'm not a monster. I hope I'm wrong, I just don't think I am. These people think we've gone without an attack for 8 years because the threat is "overblown," or "fearmongering" to begin with. They've forgotten 9/11, or were never really touched by it, or whatever coping mechanism they used to get over the pain has taken over the common sense centers of their brains. They really have no clue how hard people have worked to keep us safe and how hard they still must work. Even if we did outlaw these enhanced methods, releasing the memos and allowing for prosecution of the people who OK'd the actions detailed in them will have a chilling effect on the intelligence community. How hard are they going to work to catch suspects if they fear their every move will be analyzed by lawyers? Once they catch them, how hard will they try to find out what they know? Will the agencies attract different people to begin with, those who know they'll never have to get their hands dirty and never be held accountable if something happens on their watch? I worry about all these things. I remember 9/11 and what led up to it, and it was NOT "overzealous" intel work.
So I stand by what I've said. I support "torture" as it's defined by the left. Not because I actually believe it's the best way or the only way or moral or even that the people it's used on "deserve it." I support it because I refuse to oppose it out of hand, and I refuse to do that because I refuse to be intellectually lazy enough to say "I oppose torture," but the gov't has an obligation to protect me. If the latter is true, then the former MUST remain on the table at least. I have a little more faith that it can be used judiciously because it has been. THAT is what the memos tell me, too bad the media lives in a fantasy world where you can keep the nation safe without even the threat of discomfort in the mind of the enemy. I fear they will learn how wrong they are on that score--or more accurately, they WOULD learn if they were capable of learning anything (which apparently they are not). Let's hope for their sakes they are also incapable of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Posted by Deb on
