Post 9-11 Torture

Torture, and specifically torture approved by the President to use on suspected terrorists, keeps periodically returning to the headlines.

AP: Probe: Pentagon lawyers sought harsh interrogation

The Pentagon in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks pursued abusive interrogation techniques once used by North Korea and Vietnam on American POWs despite stern warnings by several military lawyers that the methods were cruel and even illegal, according to a Senate investigation.

"The guidance (administration lawyers) provided will go down in history as some of the most irresponsible and shortsighted legal analysis ever provided to our nation's military and intelligence communities," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C...

I just don't get Lindsey Graham. He makes a responsible statement like the one above and then he comes out completely in favor of the administration that approved it in the first place.

Several of those techniques, including stress positions, were later approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in a December 2002 memo for use at Guantanamo Bay. Rumsfeld and Haynes agreed to the methods, despite objections by military service lawyers that they might be illegal.

Pointing to Rumsfeld as a source for torture is like pointing to the sky and saying that's where the air is.

What is amazing to me is that you have someone like Rumsfeld practically openly admitting what he did. Then he supports it with his 'wizened' persona. The effect is that people stop and actually think, yes that's true.

Where is the objectivity and the principle of universality when we judge Rumsfeld and his merry neo-con band of hooligans.

The trick is to go back to step one. Step one is plain and simple, torture is wrong, it is illegal, it is reprehensible, and it doesn't work. Now you can dress that up in a pony tail and miniskirt or if you prefer 30 years of governmental work under right wing politicians and its still wrong, illegal, reprehensible and it doesn't work.

There is a legal system in place for political leaders that get carried away with their own majestic presence. This is exactly where Bush and co. belong, in the justice system and on trial for war crimes.