Friday, April 24, 2009

Torture

As I wrote earlier, I don't buy this whole argument of looking forward not backward when it comes to investigating possible criminal activity of Bush administration officials, especially when it comes to torture. Once again, Paul Krugman of the New York Times perfectly expresses my views when it comes to this issue in his op-ed piece here.

Surprisingly, Shep Smith of Fox News actually spoke some truth. Check it out here. How long is this guy going to last at Fox, I wonder? Between this and his scolding of Joe the Plumber, he is just not following the Fox script.

Watching Peggy Noonan wax eloquent about how we should just move on and keep walking is nauseating.

And as they keep saying on the Stephanie Miller radio show - all criminal investigations and prosecutions are about looking backwards -- unless it is in the movie Minority Report.

How will we be able to hold ourselves up as as shining beacon of democracy, freedom and justice if we do not hold someone accountable for this whole ugly chapter in our history? We executed people for waterboarding our soldiers after World War II. How can we say this is not torture? The argument that this practice is used to train our soldiers is so shoddy -- it is used to prepare them for possible torture -- because it is TORTURE!!! And it goes beyond waterboarding. Practices included sleep deprivation, slamming detainees against walls, psychological torture and sexual abuse. There are even reports of that old standby - cigarette burns. Read this disturbing article about a soldier who committed suicide after refusing to take part in the torture.

I really hope that President Obama has a plan and is going to allow the Justice Department to investigate. I understand not wanting to make it political, but we cannot let politics stand in the way of justice.

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