(thanks to David Flanders for this one)
You gotta wonder, how could these administration officials be so confident that we don't torture? Well, there's only two options, really. One, the administration reminded all military and intelligence agencies of the moral commitment that civilized nations have to remain humane, even in times of peril. Or.... They sat in a room and meticulously crafted an interrogation regimen in the lawyer-created space between cruelty and torture. Hmmm....I wonder which way they went.
"America doesn't torture." Remember that self-righteous phraseology that has been the mantra of so many committed Bushies for so long now? Lest you become one of those cynical sorts (like myself, f'rinstance) that refuses to believe in the healing power of propaganda and the Big Lie, the truth will set you free. And what, exactly, IS the truth? Well, it's whatever this Administration needs it to be, and whatever they can keep repeating with a straight face.
Guess what, though? Not only does America torture, it's been condoned, encouraged, and even minutely choreographed at the highest levels of our government. Yes, not only does America torture, but the playbook has been written by the Bush White House.
OK, so Jon Stewart's take on this is funny, but there is nothing humorous about what this sorry excuse for a human being President has turned our government into. We're better than this aren't we? Or are we really the collection of easily propagandized and terrified sheeple we've demonstrated ourselves to be since 9.11? I don't think I really need to answer that, do I?
Time was when America rightfully held itself up to the world as a moral beacon, an example to the rest of the world of how the rights of the individual and those of the collective could mesh. OK, so it's never been perfect, but the rule of law and the vision set out by the Founders in the Constitution provided the vast majority of Americans the ability to live their lives in peace, without having to worry about the long, overbearing arm of State authority bearing down upon them for no reason other than it could. Amazing how flying airplanes into a couple of building will change things, no?
I lost a friend in the World Trade Center on 9.11, and I know of the pain and the sense of powerless anger that can be generated from such senseless violence. I've been to Ground Zero, and I've felt the anguish that so many Americans have felt since that terrible day. By the same token, though, must we become monsters in order to kill a monster? Must we condone the destruction of our civil liberties so that they may be saved? Where does that leave us? This is not the country I grew up believing in...and from where I sit, we are all poorer for it.
Perhaps the saddest aspect of this saga is the complete and utter lack of outrage that this story has generated- in the media, in Congress, and amongst the America sheeple. It would appear that when it comes to the war on terror, the means really do justify the ends. Who says the terrorists haven't won?
Somewhere, Josef Goebbels is laughing maniacally into his beer....
