These sorry sons of bitches: In Adopting Harsh Tactics, No Inquiry Into Past Use.
I think this article may upset me more than the graphic details of the actual interrogation. (And that’s saying something). This is either insanely gross incompetence, at the level of Cabinet members and the leaders of Congress, or blatent willful ignorance of the facts to avoid responsibility. This article is just chock full of crazy:
According to several former top officials involved in the discussions seven years ago, they did not know that the military training program, called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, had been created decades earlier to give American pilots and soldiers a sample of the torture methods used by Communists in the Korean War, methods that had wrung false confessions from Americans.
The top officials [Tenet] briefed did not learn that waterboarding had been prosecuted by the United States in war-crimes trials after World War II and was a well-documented favorite of despotic governments since the Spanish Inquisition; one waterboard used under Pol Pot was even on display at the genocide museum in Cambodia.
Pardon my French, but…come the fuck ON. Are you serious…this is your defense?? AAhh…they had blowed us up! We waz scared! How were we to know this stuff was bad?
Hell, I was a goddamn NROTC midshipman and I knew that SERE training was based on Korean War torture techniques. That was the whole POINT.
It’s time for somebody to go to jail. We tortured people. We tortured people because we could, and we didn’t really think of them as human beings, and we were looking for vengeance. Same reasons as anybody who tortures people, really. And now we’re pulling the but everything happened so fast
card.
That’s exactly why people with sense were telling you to slow down before you did something stupid. And instead, you’re going to try to excuse your actions by emphasizing your incompetence. It’s time for the people making those decisions to take responsibility. (and don’t start with me on Cheney’s eh, it worked, so shut up about it
argument).
Well said. I think there is something about the current instance that brings out the coarse language. While I am not in any way opposed to cursing, I normally keep the tone a little more calm, but I opened and closed my post with “Goddamn fuckers.”
Indeed. I realize I probably cuss more than…umm…most, but this was one of those situations that really brought it out. I actually rewrote this about 4 times; it was quite a bit saltier. But even I went…whoops!! *grin* So a little editing was in order. But my heart still races when I read it, so I think it's about right.
I've gotten better at talking to people I disagree with politically about most topics (as in, I don't jump in their face quite so much), but this topic I can't really talk about without going straight for the throat. (or walking away, which is alot safer, especially if it's a co-worker or something.)
Well said. I think there is something about the current instance that brings out the coarse language. While I am not in any way opposed to cursing, I normally keep the tone a little more calm, but I opened and closed my post with “Goddamn fuckers.”
Indeed. I realize I probably cuss more than…umm…most, but this was one of those situations that really brought it out. I actually rewrote this about 4 times; it was quite a bit saltier. But even I went…whoops!! *grin* So a little editing was in order. But my heart still races when I read it, so I think it's about right.
I've gotten better at talking to people I disagree with politically about most topics (as in, I don't jump in their face quite so much), but this topic I can't really talk about without going straight for the throat. (or walking away, which is alot safer, especially if it's a co-worker or something.)