I wasn't talking about how the intelligence gained was used though Val. I was referring to the posts regarding water boarding for ANY reason. The point is because the Bush Administration allowed it, they are still scum despite the results re bin Laden. It still violated international law and never should have been used, yadda yadda.
However, if the enhanced interrogation had been authorized under Obama with the same results, the same people trashing Bush and waterboarding would now be looking for ways to defend it.
And most of those condemning water boarding won't discuss any remote reason to deviate from a no-waterboarding standard policy.
And perhaps I am second guessing some folks here, but it comes from long experience and observation of this kind of phenomenon over a lot of years now. It has become pretty predictable.
America is still in a situation where we are being threatened with a potential crisis situation where hundreds or thousands of innocent lives could be lost...
The author of the article is not a "lefty", del is not a "lefty", the US Military JAGS, Colin Powell, not "lefties"... This is not a matter of left/right politics, but a matter of long standing American principles, that is the entire point of the OP, so I'm not sure why you imagine lefties should come in here and speculate about hypotheticals which would justify torture...???
I wasn't referring to the article in the OP, however, when I made my observation. And yes, it was an ad hominem observation, but it is an honest observation just the same.
The degree of 'terribleness' of any controversial activity is too often determined by which political party, religion, group, person etc. does it.
It was based on long experience with a pronounced double standard too often applied based on ideology or political party or sociopolitical leanings.
Old Rocks negs me because he says I am advocating torture which I have not done at any time in any fashion.
I have been clear that that our national policy is and should be that cruel and inhumane treatment is neither condoned nor utliized.
I have been clear that I will condemn any enhanced interrogation used to find out whether or if somebody knows something useful. And I certainly will strongly consign to hell those who would do that for their amusement.
Nor have I bashed the left or liberals in this discussion but rather only observed the usual M.O. (actually from both sides) that an action is usually condoned or condemned according to who does it. At least that was my intent.
And I have observed that
almost nobody is willing to even consider whether that secret agent was justified in shooting off that toe,
or
whether one would of necessity look the other way should enhanced interrogation be utilized in a matter in which hundreds or thousands of innocent lives were in imminent danger.
For me, intellectual honesty includes what may be necessary as well as what must be policy.
Are you saying torture may sometimes be necessary or not???
