On Staring Death in the Face and Not Noticing
Here’s the essence of it: you can trust America’s crème de la crème, the most elevated, responsible people, no matter what weapons, what powers, you put in their hands. No need to constantly look over their shoulders.
By their own account, they have, in fact, been covertly exceptional, moral, and legal for more than a decade (minus, of course, the odd black site and torture chamber) – so covertly exceptional, in fact, that they haven’t quite gotten the credit they deserve. Now, they would like to make the latest version of their exceptional mission to the world known to the rest of us. It is finally in our interest, it seems, to be a good deal better informed about America’s covert wars in a year in which the widely announced "covert" killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan is a major selling point in the president’s reelection campaign.
WHEN WE TORTURE: The world understands that the confessions obtained under torture is NOT actionable intelligence, but a propaganda ploy toward acheiving some predetermined geopolitical outcome.
WHEN WE TORTURE: We demonstrate to the world that human rights, the rule of law, and human dignity are values we observe in their breach, and not in their observance.
WHEN WE TORTURE: We give carte blanche for any government hostile to the US to do precisely the same to American military personnel or civilians.
Please, those of you with family or friends in the US military, chew on that one for a while, before you decide that US torture of prisoners of war (excuse me, "enemy combatants") is a really good idea.