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

Re: Torture states do things like this

[risu.livejournal.com]

It is right to be shocked and horrified by these.

And, yes, to want to stop the people who would do such things, and to bring them to justice, and to contain these sick ideas.

It is right.

To be angry at these . . . is *just*.

But . . .

But I do not think that you are connecting to what solarbird is talking about if you think that it . . . changes how *we* should be.

I don't think your point is . . . in the same argument.

I don't think we should be measuring ourselves by our enemies. We should be the people that measure ourselves by our ideals. We should be the *anti-torture* country, the country of largesse and heroism and compassion and effort as vast and inexplicable as Al-Qaeda's grotesqueries. Not the country of no permanent damage, but the country of give us your tired your poor your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Not the country of stress positions and simulated drowning but the country of celebration of the unalienable rights of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We should be able to be kinder to our prisoners than Al-Qaeda members are to their *families*.