A revealing, very revealing op-ed in today’s WaPo.
On April 16, President Obama released the now-infamous torture memos along with a covering statement that said the CIA’s old interrogation methods not only failed to “make us safer” but undermined “our moral authority.” A week later, a woman holding the hand of a child walked into a throng in Baghdad and blew herself up. Apparently she had not heard of our new moral authority.
That term — “moral authority” — gets used a lot. There is such a thing, I suppose, although a suicide bomber probably thinks he or she has it in abundance. Whatever it may be, however, it is an awfully thin reed upon which to construct a foreign policy. I, for one, am glad we’re no longer torturing anyone, but ceasing this foul practice will not in any way make Americans safer. We prohibit torture for other reasons.
Yes, he has to take a jab or two at Dick Cheney, and say a couple of minor odd things. However, he absolutely nails the one thing we should all be disgusted about in this business:
If Obama thinks the world will respond to his new torture policy, he is seriously misguided. Indeed, he has made things a bit easier for terrorists who now know what will not happen to them if they get caught. And by waffling over whether he will entertain the prosecution of Bush-era Justice Department lawyers (and possibly CIA interrogators as well), he has shown agents in the field that he is behind them, oh, about 62 percent of the time.
Awfully nice when your Commander in Chief hands the enemy an advantage, isn’t it?
But Cohen’s OP-Ed piece makes a very telling point at the end when he says:
“I know it is offensive to compare almost anyone or anything to the Nazis, but the Bush-era memos struck me as echoes from the past. Here, once again, were the squalid efforts of legal toadies to justify the unjustifiable. Here, again, was a lesson that needs constant refreshing: Before you can torture anyone, you must first torture the law. When that happens, we are all on the rack.”
Just wanted to say HI. I found your blog a few days ago and have been reading it over the past few days.
Yes, I know. All those heads we cut off in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And that time we hung charred bodies from a bridge – we really deserve to be compared to nazis.
Don’t forget when we slammed those planes into the WTC too.
Oh wait, that was THE ENEMY. With all of these comparisons to nazis, you have to forgive me for losing track of reality (not unlike the Obama administration).
Townie76, your posting is pathetic.
Not one bit of this “moral supremacy” or other drivel matters one little tiny bit when YOU ARE DEAD. Barack the magic mulatto has only one job – to keep this country safe and alive. He has no right to his opinion as long as he is president, and even less right to impose it on everyone else. The reason for this is that while that socialist buttmunch has a few thousand federal police and secret service agents to keep his ignorant liberal ass out of the line of fire, I ONLY HAVE ME TO DEPEND ON.
It is as simple as that. The true tragedy here is that all the simpletons who really and honestly think we will be able to win simply by being more upstanding and nicer than our enemies will get a free ride to survival on the backs of those with the balls to get out in the field and fight.
Your new enemy leader threatening prosecution of your enemy’s previous leadership is more than an advantage, it is a win. Effectively, our CINC has justified in the enemy’s mind their sacrifices in fighting us these past years. That is more than an advantage, that is a win.
Here, again, was a lesson that needs constant refreshing: Before you can torture anyone, you must first torture the law. When that happens, we are all on the rack.”
Townie76 ยท April 28, 2009 06:20 PM
Nobody is denying this fact.
The debate is whether or not water-boarding constitutes torture.
In a legal context this is not torture, but I’m not going to go into the details in this post because it is common knowledge we can just look up.
In a political context we can define anything in any way that we want. And this is the problem with this particular issue. We are politicizing a minor national security issue, which is at best despicable and at worst treasonous.
USMC Steve, you racist crackers are a disgrace to the Corps. F
Why don’t you find a new way to identify yourself to non-Nazi websites so that people don’t think you speak for Americans in the Corps. Moron!
Bill,
How is USMC Steve racist? Because he used the word mulatto? Look up the word in a dictionary. It means the child of one black parent and one white parent. I could also call you a racist for using the word cracker. Which is a racist term for white people. So….