In the Foxified world, Obama's policies against torture are tantamount to giving the country to the terrorists. Reality, it seems, suggests otherwise:
Michael Sulick, head of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, told a student audience last week that the spy agency has seen no fall-off in intelligence since waterboarding was banned by the Obama administration.
"I don’t think we’ve suffered at all from an intelligence standpoint," Sulick told students and some faculty members at Fordham University, his alma mater, on March 25. "But I don’t want to talk about [it from] a legal, moral or ethical standpoint."
The thing is, though, as Fox "news" and the rest of the RWS™ and their Republican employees know only too well, for their listeners such data mean nothing. Same with the 16,000 IRS agent lie, death panels, and whatever other dishonest talking point is felt likely to sway the greatest number of their unquestioning followers.
A perfect example is the torture cheerleader Marc Thiessen, whose recent book all but claims that in ending torture, President Obama has opened the door and invited terrorists in. That his book is based on lies and errors is well documented. Nevertheless he's been amply rewarded with round-the-clock credibility by the right wing, most especially the editorial page of the formerly readable Washington Post.
The "discussions" about torture perfectly encapsulate, in my view, the problem with political discourse in this country at this time. Devised as a way to get people falsely to confess to crimes they didn't commit -- at that, it's unarguably excellent; just ask John McPOW -- torture has clearly given unreliable information when flipped from its calling. And "standard" interrogations have led to the overwhelming bulk of useful intelligence from prisoners. Yet it's still a perfect left-right separator. To me, that's as incredible as the fact that it's only right wingers who think the earth is six thousand years old and that the globe isn't warming.
At least the torture argument has slipped a bit from center stage. But that's only because we're now arguing about which sort of dictator Obama is.
Who knows what's goin on down at Git-mo?, which still houses A-rab Terrorists BTW, none of which have had a trial before a Military Commission, much less a Jury of there Peers...
ReplyDeleteYeah, Gitmo's still open, some 440 days into the reign of Obama I(Peace be upon Him) or 556 American Deaths in Iran/Iraq ago...
Intelligence?? the Army didnt even notice a Terrorist Shrink until he shot up the place, even promoted him...
and whats with your sudden interest in what John McCain thinks??? He's a friggin idiot.
Check out my blog sometime...got a cool calculator where you can see how much more in taxes you'll pay next year...
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Frank