Some time ago, all right, about 19 months ago, I made a statement that the War in Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. What I meant by that was pretty basic - there was no connection between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein/Iraq. Yes, this was one of the primary arguments in favor of the second AUMF for Iraq. Yes, it was wrong - there was no connection.
It turns out, of course, that the administration found this out pretty early on, yet they refused to believe it. We know now that the administration authorized torture, even as it was dismissing what happened at Abu Ghraib as the work of "a few bad apples." But, what did they do? Well, like anyone desperate to show they're right, they resorted to torture, which they derided publicly, yet embraced to prove their lie. I read about this first at Andrew Sullivan's site. It wasn't bad apples, it was top-down policy, complete with scapegoating.
I think the fact that this has happened in our name is deplorable. And I'm not sure how you can trust those who denied that they even tortured (h/t Mark Shea) when they now say that that torture led to useful information - particularly when the examples they provide are temporally impossible. (From the Slate - also first read on Andrew Sullivan)
I am fully in favor of special counsel being appointed. I most certainly believe Jay Bybee and John Yoo need to be disbarred. I think that all of this needs to be brought out in the open and aired publicly, so that the wounds can begin to heal, and we can begin to return to our place atop the moral high ground. Ignoring this, or walking away, helps nobody but those who violated the laws that those below them have already been punished for. (h/t Obsidian Wings)
1 comment:
The thing 9/11 has to do with the war in Iraq is that 9/11 got Americans good and scared so the Bush Administration had carte blanche to do whatever the hell they wanted to do. Makes you wonder how much they REALLY knew about 9/11 before it happened!
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