Torture states love

[solarbird]

A brief history of the new bipartisan acceptance of torture.

Torture states hate being wrong, so make up reasons to send you to jail.

Torture states love redefining "private" to mean "not private."

Torture states don't really care about counterexamples, because effectiveness isn't the point.

Torture states take pride in torture. "Three Cheers for Waterboarding... Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud."

Comments

Ugly thought

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Is it simply that the people in charge of this stuff want their country to be hated worldwide, for some offset reason or another? Keeps the people from travelling out of country? Enhances the Big Stick model of diplomacy?

And yes, waterboarding IS torture, except maybe in torture states where the very word "torture" means what the folks in charge want it to mean.

I have absolutely no idea how, or even whether, this state of affairs can be fixed. George Bernard Shaw would probably propose making The Old White Guys sleep on the couch for a while.... but how realistic is that idea, when so many women, too, seem to support this stuff?

Re: Ugly thought

[solarbird]

I can't quite remember an early quote about how it's more important to be feared than to be liked on the international scene from one of the architects of this whole thing. But it's there somewhere.

Re: Ugly thought

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

If my wonky memory serves me correctly, there was a statement to that end in an article in Foreign Affairs a couple of years ago. Guess this is a good time to trundle off to the bedside bookcase and riffle through till I find it.

Re: Ugly thought

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Sorry - couldn't find it -- must have gone out in one of the potlatches.