I don't have the link handy at the moment, but it's been going around the blogosphere, and is perhaps even spreading into the MSM, that former Vice-President Dick Cheney has called for the release of CIA reports regarding the apparent successes of torture, or enhanced interrogation, or whatever we're all calling it these days.
Cheney's rationale is more or less that if everyone knows how well all our waterboarding, sensory deprivation, slappin, etc. worked, how safe it really made us, then we'll all just say "Great, sounds like torturing people is a good idea, no matter how illegal or immoral it may be."
Obviously I doubt that would be the expected reaction, but I think Mr. Cheney might be on to something here. The more we know about what the US has been doing in regards to interrogation, the more likely we may be to actually do something about this, in terms of prosecutions, truth comissions or what have you. So yeah, let's get those papers out, everything we can. Because really, if we don't let everything out, we can never know what else we're hiding.
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2 comments:
I completely agree. Even though the thought of our government torturing or interrogating people is quite unpleasant, it does help that they are revealing more to the public. Alot happens behind closed doors and I think the truth should come out.
One thing I am glad about is that we're not like China. In a previous blog, China's government became extremely upset when a youtube video was released revealing some of China's troops brutallt beating some innocent group of people(I don't remember what ethnicity they were), and although the material was shocking, I think China's people deserved to know the truth.
Similarly, I think the American people should know the truh about what goes on, good or bad.
regardless of how "effective" torture may be, I'd have thought Cheney would have more sense advocate something that has been, in a sense, forbidden under international law. How we treat prisoners during the conduct of war is, after all, something that other countries will notice and judge us on. I guess it is thus no surprise that the US is losing it's reputation abroad. Shocking or not, however, I believe that the material should be released. We can't exactly ignore the past and leave this issue pushed underneath the carpet. It's there, and we can't hide it nor should we ignore it.
As for establishing a truth commission for Bush era war crime... I'd have to disagree with the notion of trying Bush, Cheney, etc. Rather than seek vengeance, we should address the issue face to face before leaving it behind. Punishing Bush at this point would only lead to bitter feelings and animosity.
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