Punish the Real "Torture" Culprits

It seems I was quite shortsighted in my assessment that the left would be satisfied with Bush and Cheney indictments.

My bad.

The trouble with this desire for retribution isn't that it goes too far. The trouble is that it doesn't go far enough. There is another group -- a large one -- that stood by doing nothing while Americans grabbed people off the streets of foreign countries, took them to other foreign countries (because we don't allow this sort of thing in the United States!) and tortured them until they said whatever our government wanted to hear. If you're going to punish people for condoning torture, you'd better include the American citizenry itself.

Normally I wouldn't give Michael Kinsley the sweat off my balls, if you'll indulge the "I don't give a fuck about what he thinks" structure.

Notice the entire absence of the heart of the argument. We swing completely past moral equivalence into "goddammit, we TOLD you this was the most fucked up thing EVER" (because Bush is the criminal), past that even, into "now it's time for payback bitches!" No stopping at the Frank Church "we disagree" line.

No.

This goofball doesn't just ignore the whole "torture" and "who did we save" arguments. He amps it to eleven. He's quite ready to take it to the 48% who dared to question the elevation of righteousness and purity.

He's not interested in your arguments about purile crap like "legal", nor whether it was effective. Who was potentially protected or not. This argument goes way past that.

This is about your tacit or active support for a prior political regime.

It's time for punishment, for having exercised your right to live and think in a Republic.

That is a chill wind. "Shut up if you know what's good for you".

posted by Dave In Texas at 10:59 AM

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