“This government does not torture people,” President George W. Bush, Friday, October 5, 2007.
"This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe," the president said. Saturday, March 8, 2008.In the second quote, he's referring to his veto of a bill that would ban waterboarding, a type of TORTURE, which the administration has admitted they've used in the past.
So, the U.S. doesn't torture. Except when we do. And we won't outlaw torture because we might want to do it again.
Absolutely shameful. How far we have fallen.
4 comments:
Zoe gets so upset about the state of this country that she actually starts crying. I keep trying to tell her that America doesn't suck, just the idiots running it, but it's a hard distinction to make before a certain age.
That's being a bit naive. I don't think that torture started with the Bush Administration. The CIA has been doing nasty things while the US government preaches morality for many, many years. That's the way the world works. Lots of things go on that we would prefer not to know about. To say the US doesn't live up to its ideals is simply to say that the US is not perfect and acts at times the way all countries act. And, the fact is, compared to much of the rest of the world, we are a beacon of human rights. But we aren't the beacon of purity that conservatives try to pretend we are or that liberals think we should be. The problem, of course, is that we go about preaching to the world.
Marc in favor of torture. Got it. :-)
Dude, it's not naive to wish that the government would live up to the standards they preach to the rest of the world. It's not naive to wish that the government would abide by treaties we've signed. It's not naive to wish that the government would not torture, which doesn't work and hurts our efforts abroad. It doesn't matter what went on in the past, this is today and torture is counterproductive.
But your specific quote was "how far we have fallen." My point is, I don't think we have fallen that far. The U.S. has been in the business for years of overthrowing governments we didn't like and essentially facilitating torture even if we didn't do it ourselves.
And, let's face it, the US is not unique in this. Every country does what it thinks it must and powerful countries do more than weak countries. The US probably does less bad stuff than most countries but, because of our self-righteousness, we subject ourselves to obvious criticism.
I'm not justifying this and I'm certainly not saying we should torture, but you're sticking your head in the sand to think that this is something unique to this administration. Rendition certainly started before Bush. Bush is, if anything, more honest by acknowledging that we do nasty things when we think it's necessary (even if he dissembles by saying it's not torture). The point is, the moral highground we talk about has always been a bit of a sham.
Post a Comment