The Definitive Note on Torture

I have been overly devoted to the recent debate surrounding torture committed by the US Government in recent weeks. I find myself ashamed of my home country for various reasons. First of all, torturing suspects is inherently wrong and not doing these types of inherently wrong things is something that America is supposed to be all about. It's why we exist. The rights of the accused are defended against this type of thing in the Bill of Rights - four times! Secondly, anyone who's not lying to save their own ass generally says that it is ineffective. It does not keep anybody safe as it generally produces false intelligence. False intelligences like, say, I dunno, WMDs and Al Qaida in Iraq.

But more than the fact that it was done, I am ashamed that nearly half of the American public thinks it was a good idea. They are siding with Dick Cheney. They are fools and don't care about what our country stands for. We must defeat them. My dad was an interrogator for the US Army in World War II. We didn't do this then, and I think it's pretty safe to say we were facing a more formidable foe. And as stated above, it doesn't freaking work and is against both international laws and our own.

The clearest summary I have come across regarding how and why this happened was published today by Andrew Sullivan. Check it out here. There is some speculation on his part, but all of it based on facts that are crystal clear. It sums up the whole dirty business. The quick, two-sentence summary: We tortured people so that they would tell us that Iraq and Al Qaida were connected so that we could invade, even though they were lying so that we would stop torturing them. How many US lives has this torture saved so far? 4,294 killed, over 30,000 wounded.

That's all for now. I promise to shut up about this until the evildoers are brought to justice. Please read Sullivan's post. It's the clearest summary you're going to find. I owe y'all some reports on vacations I took with Belu and a Big Red Ultimate update. The next posting will be parrots and puppies. I swear.