Well, despite the attempts of the right, the buzz over the Battle between Christmas and Holiday has just a tad sarcastic sound to it (and I feel guilty for even mentioning it, it's so damn stupid and obviously manipulative).
No, the buzz I'm hearing these days is over torture. Troll the blogs at random and you wont have to go far before you find someone talking about torture. Usually they're saying it's a bad thing, but not everyone has left the Inquisition behind (and I'm not talking about the "comfy chair").
Did you listen to John McCain taking to Terry Gross the other day on Fresh Air? You should have. This is a man with a personal understanding of torture. He points out that even if you do get valuable information from torture (unlikely), it is never worth the price.
Or check out the tale of Benyam Mohammed, as told to the Guardian. Both parts. (props to The Working Families Party)
Even the Administration is being forced into talking about it. Condi's traipsing all over Europe right now telling how Americans "do not torture". Of course, this statement ignores the very real BushCorp love of outsourcing and privatisation. Damn lawyers and their sophistry anyway. Shakespeare was right.
Somebody pointed out somewhere that BushCo was safe from the International War Crimes court because Dubya hadnt signed on to the Treaty. The also said that Tony Blair may find himself in a very hard place because he's an ally of the U.S., but has signed on to the treaty.
I would have to ask what any treaty has to do with anything. Ask Slobodan Milosovic. I dont think he signed any treaties either, but he's still under indictment.
Here's another opinion: The U.S. does torture. If they did not, Dick Cheney would not be running around trying to block an anti-torture bill, because there is only one reason to do so: Because the BushCorp wants to continue the practice - its own practice - of torture. Any attempts to parse the term torture are, at best, self-deception, and at worst...
Ask any ten-year old boy, and he'll tell you (possibly in graphic detail) what torture is. Describe for him U.S. practices, or those condoned by us but performed by our sub-contractors, and he'll tell you what's torture and what's not.
Let me offer this paraphrase: I cant define torture, but I know it when I see it. Definitions beget loopholes. And dont tell me (as one person did at Spoonfighter) that you dont know the "meaning" of torture. You do.
I'll finish up with Terry Pratchett: “When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried they wont like the truth" from Carpe Jugulum
Keep the buzz alive. Talk, talk, talk.
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3 comments:
Dave,
Anyone who says they don't know the meaning of "torture" is probably the same kind of chap who would ask what "is" is. That is, someone who damn well knows what it means, but doesn't want to talk about it.
zup dude thanks.
As I happen to know the "anyone" in question--at least the one who left the comment on my website--I can authoritatively say that he is actually an incredibly intelligent, thoughtful and not the slightest bit wishy-washy sort of person. But he is the sort of person who sees holes in definitions and arguments. Like me, he wonders what torture is. Not in the sense that we don't know that throwing someone on the rack for an hour isn't torture, but wondering what we _mean_ when we say "torture". Wondering whether it includes psychological torture; wondering whether there are types of torture that are permissable in certain scenarios. Personally, I'm fascinated by how we tend to view torture in terms of physical violence, or perhaps gross disrespect, but are generally willing to accept psychological abuse. And then there's the fact that, at some level, ALL torture is psychological. Physical pain is just a vehicle.
All of which is to say that if we distill the governing principles or values from the practices we find acceptable or unacceptable, and then apply those principles to other areas, we will often find that we are not behaving consistently.
Sorry if my prose is a bit obtuse, but it happens when I'm drunk.
-- SpoonFighter
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