*Do you call everyone you disagree with names? Sheesh. You've done
it 2-3 times now.*Ok, so -you- can call names but no one else can;
is that how the game goes? Or did I just imagine your reference to
"Dr. James Rockford" (nice effort to de-legitimise the guy put
putting his name in quotes) as someone who would normally end up in
your "crank" email?
Someone who makes a clear, thoughtful, cogent response to your call
for torture is a "crank" but heaven forfend that your delicate
sensibilties should be bruised by what your percieve to be a
patronizing tone from Mr. Macdonald or harsh words from Mr.
Nielsen.
You can't even be consistent yourself on this comperably
insignificant issue and yet your seem to think that torture can be
applied consistently to only those deserving of it while sparing
the innocent and protecting the righteous. And somehow this will be
done by a government that, if your blog is any indication, in
nearly every other instance, you wouldn't trust to successfully
screw in a light bulb.
Heck, you yourself haven't even been consistent on who would or
would not be a candidate for torture. First it's AlQaeda
operatives, then when someone brings up the fact that those sad
bastards who died at Bagram were likely no more that Talib foot
soldiers your definition of AlQaeda suddenly becomes more elastic
and they're acceptable targets as well. And then you're back to
strictly AlQaeda folks again.
Why not just be honest and admit that you want to hurt anyone
potentially connected to 9/11, not for justice or to prevent more
attacks, but simply for the sheer horrible gut-level satisifaction
of feeling like you've gotten even. If not on AlQaeda as a whole,
then on one little piece of it. You want them to hurt because you
were hurt. You want then to feel pain because you felt pain. You
want to take back a bit of the power they took from us. You want to
savor their helplessness, their agony, their misery just as they
savored ours. You think, as victims, we're owed at least that, if
not more. You want to do it because at the most animal level it
feels good, it feels righteous, it feels justified. You want to do
it because those MoFo's have it coming.
You can pretty it up as much as you want to but in the end, that's
what it all comes down to. And if we get some useful info, well
that's nice, but it's not really the point at all is it?
Of course the problem with that is that when you start in a cycle
like that it feeds on itself like a breeder reactor and who knows
how or where it'll end. They, after all, use just the same sort of
arguments you've used to justify torture in order to justify the
9/11 attacks. But none of that matters because damn but it feels
good -right now-.
You want torture. Fine. It's a hard impulse to fight, that burning
need to get even and stick it to them whats stuck it to you. But at
least be honest about why you want it and stop trying to construct
a moral justification to make it seem less icky.
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