Open Left:: Whitehouse: Waterboarding Story Line "False in Every One of its Dimensions"

Whitehouse: Waterboarding Story Line "False in Every One of its Dimensions" | 12 comments

All True Enough (4.00 / 3)

but the real problem is the complicity of the Democrats, who really have no reason to be going along with this, except for fear itself.

"Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition"

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Sat Jun 13, 2009 at 14:46:24 PM CDT

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Yes, yes, yes (4.00 / 2)

Indeed, the mere fact the political class is still trying to stealthily support the torture regime is a bi-partisan thing and that's not being discussed like it should be. That's why I wonder how many of Whitehouse's colleagues are listening, because he's making the kind of argument that's extremely difficult to ignore. I don't see how any person of conscience can do so.

While I think most Dems in DC are against torture, the leadership has some 'splainin' to do--especially in the Senate. The media is is clearly pro-torture, though they try to keep their bias sub rosa by meticulously cleansing the offensive language from the lexicon. Perhaps there is a fear of media there. It's undestandable, if still grossly offensive.

I'm beginning to think the issue of institutionalized torture in this country is not going away any time soon. If Obama's cover-up is successful and congress ends up passing a bunch of bills trashing FOIA and any public claim to know anything about their government's behavior, they will essentially be sacrificing the legitimacy of the USG en toto. Between this and "preventive detention," we have our work cut out for us.

"In our country, the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State" -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

by: Emocrat @ Sat Jun 13, 2009 at 17:30:14 PM CDT

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Stay Tuned For A Followup Torture Diary Tomorrow (0.00 / 0)

I'll be taking on the issue of just how deeply involved in it we really are. Hint: a lot more than anyone likes to think.

"Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition"

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Sat Jun 13, 2009 at 18:08:32 PM CDT

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Very true (4.00 / 2)

I wrote a paper way back in 1985 on torture among American client states and closed with the question, "When will they bring this home for the rest of us to experience first hand?" When I presented it in class it damn near started a riot. I exaggerate, but it felt like that for a couple minutes.

Related to this is a smart little post over at Edge of the American West, quoting from Graham Greene:

http://edgeofthewest.wordpress...

"Did you torture him?"
Captain Segura laughed. "No. He doesn't belong to the torturable class."...
"Who does?"
"The poor in my own country, in any Latin American country. The poor of Central Europe and the Orient. Of course in your welfare states you have no poor, so you are untorturable. In Cuba the police can deal as harshly as they like with émigrés from Latin America and the Baltic States, but not with visitors from your country or Scandinavia. It is an instinctive matter on both sides. Catholics are more torturable than Protestants, just as they are more criminal.... One reason why the West hates the great Communist states is that they don't recognise class-distinctions. Sometimes they torture the wrong people. So too of course did Hitler and shocked the world. Nobody cares what goes on in our prisons, or the prisons of Lisbon or Caracas, but Hitler was too promiscuous. It was rather as though in your country a chauffeur had slept with a peeress."
"We're not shocked by that any longer."
"It is a great danger for everyone when what is shocking changes." (pp. 164-165 in the collected edition)

Le plus ça change, no?

"In our country, the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State" -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

by: Emocrat @ Sat Jun 13, 2009 at 21:25:26 PM CDT

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