David Broder is afraid of terrorism prosecutions because of the INSANE MEGA VENGEANCE that’s motivating the whole shebang.
But now Obama is being lobbied by politicians and voters who want something more—the humiliation and/or punishment of those responsible for the policies of the past. They are looking for individual scalps—or, at least, careers and reputations.
Their argument is that without identifying and punishing the perpetrators, there can be no accountability—and therefore no deterrent lesson for future administrations. It is a plausible-sounding rationale, but it cloaks an unworthy desire for vengeance.
Broder demonstrates just how worthy this is by pointing out other times that people were mad about things, and how proposed solutions to those instance of outrage were bad ideas, because nothing says “I really thought about this” like convenient and inapplicable analogies. But really, the reason that this is vengeance, and such a terrible idea, is that the Bush administration followed the time-honored tradition of breaking the law in a way that was proper and well-considered, which is why we let people off for highly contrived multi-hour bank heists - after all, they discussed them at length.
But having vowed to end the practices, Obama should use all the influence of his office to stop the retroactive search for scapegoats.
This is not another Sept. 11 situation, when nearly 3,000 Americans were killed. We had to investigate the flawed performances and gaps in the system and make the necessary repairs to reduce the chances of a deadly repetition.
The memos on torture represented a deliberate, and internally well-debated, policy decision, made in the proper places—the White House, the intelligence agencies and the Justice Department—by the proper officials.
Well, that assuages my need to yell at the heavens in a bloodthirsty rage. After all, if the people who committed a crime debated the crime among the people who were going to commit the crime at length, really, no crime was committed at all. It’s like they actually did society a favor; after all, we can always stop torturing people, but we’ll never get the chance back for respectful, considered debate.
Ergo, when I call David Broder a dickfaced soulless fuckhead shilling for the worst of “proper” society’s instincts, I do so after having consulted with literally dozens of people, having debated for hours the extent and nature of his fuckheadery as a policy matter. Fucking cockbag asshole. (This is all okay, right? Internally well-debated!)
------
Registration is now required! We're still in the process of getting it all squared away, so for the moment don't forget to Login or Register using the links in the upper left menu before starting to write your comment.
Yes. Because we are a land of laws, and what these people did was not only inhumane but endangered our soldiers and increased the odds of future attacks.
Dickface. Wanting justice for war crimes is not unworthy in the slightest. And as pardonning Nixon showed, if you just try “to heal” the nation by avoiding prosecutions, the motherfuckers come back with a thirst for worst.
Put them in jail. Hand them over to the Hague. Make it clear that lawlessness, even if gussied up with opinions from lawyers asked to justify it, is completely unacceptable.
Why the fuck can’t these people understand that this is not a game? People have been tortured. People have been killed. It’s completely different from discovering a blow job while looking for financial improprieties.
And they DID impeach Clinton for the blow job and for perjury about the blow job. And we have not fully investigated 9-11 nor fixed our security issues that led to it. Hacked electrical grid anyone?
I’m not very hopeful that Barry is going to do the right thing. My hopes now rest on a second term Hussein, with universal healthcare (not health insurance) and a slowly recovering economy under his belt, letting the dogs loose on Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, and Rice. I’m not very hopeful about that either, but it that delusion helps me with a bit of denial about the fact that these people are getting away with murder and worse.
They really do think anything goes if you’re a Republican and that nothing should be allowed if it comes from a Democrat. IT’S NOT A GAME. It’s not Bears vs. Packers. It’s not even a Subway World Series pitting the “Lovable Losers” Cubs against the “We didn’t let a whole century go between titles” White Sox. The outcome actually MATTERS, not who proposed it or what team they play for.