Bizarro World!

This is one of those through the looking glass moments where it seems that what politicians are saying publicly can't be what they really think, but what they are saying publicly is the kind of stuff they should keep quiet about. I speak, of course, about the "torture" debate (when will the newsies stop putting quotes around torture?). The bizarro effect stems from the Republican stance that no wrong doing occurred and that "You can't criminalize policy disagreements". Imagine stealing your neighbors belongings and claiming when the police show up that you merely have a different opinion about personal property rights than your neighbor so it wasn't really stealing. Now imagine the look on your neighbor's face when the police shrug and walk away.

I can't help but sit a little slack jawed while elected members of the senate and house advocate torturing people. What truly boggles the mind are the ham handed attempts to retroactively justify it. The so called "ticking time bomb" scenario is one example. At first pass this seems like a reasonable point of debate, is the morality of an inherently immoral act outweighed by the potential for even greater harm? The problem is that this situation never occurred. The response most often given by anti-torture advocates is that it almost never occurs. That is irrelevant. The debate isn't whether torture should be on the table in the future, the problem is that it did occur. We don't have to examine hypothetical situations, we can know what happened, why it happened and whether anything worthwhile at all was gained.

The next most dubious claim is that what the "high value detainees" experienced was not torture. If anyone seriously doubts that what these men endured was torture they need look no further than the report issued by noted left wing radical group The International Committee of the Red Cross. If that isn't torture I don't know what is. Even if a single instance of water boarding did not constitute torture, isn't it likely that enduring it 183 times in a month, would make it torture? I would bet that almost anything would get pretty damn old after 183 times in 30 days.

Keep in mind that these are the same Republicans who claim that they are for small government. Taxes Bad! Social Security Bad! Medicare Bad! Torture Good! Secret prisons with no judicial over sight Good! We knew all along that these folks aren't big readers, but I suggest they pick up a copy of The Gulag Archipelago and see if they can find any similarities. Then they should consider if that is the kind of small government they want to usher in.

That the President is fighting tooth and nail (in his ever so calm, nothing is wrong manner)to stop meaningful investigation into the "alleged" "torture" is more disheartening than finding out conclusively that the previous administration authorized it. As Paul Krugman pointed out in his column today there is little to be lost by the administration if prosecutions are allowed. It would be quite a feat for the President to have less Republican support in Congress. Maybe I'm a loony, but it seems to me that forcing your political opponents to openly defend torture can only help you in the polls.

The claim that only banana republics prosecute officials for breaking the law is ludicrous. Only banana republics allow government officials to torture or at least order torture without fear of consequence. If the notion of high ranking administration officials standing trial seems hard to come to terms with, that is only because the notion of the same officials committing these crimes is equally hard to comprehend. Thankfully the U.S. Constitution is strong enough to force the peaceful transfer of power even when the individuals holding the power have no respect for it, let alone human life and dignity. I think the Constitution is also strong enough to see to it that the law applies to all citizens equally.


Further thoughts: Upon further reflection what troubles me most is that these officials claim to be deeply religious, that they were speaking for a voters concerned with morality. Where in the Bible, after instructing us to turn the other cheek, did Jesus say that torturing your fellow man is ok?