Tin-horn dictators in third-world nations, on the other hand, are given to political vendettas and to prosecuting and punishing their predecessors. Today, that is what the Obama/ACORN administration is beginning to do with the Attorney General actively posturing to prosecute CIA officials who served our nation as honest and loyal American officers. They are being viciously accused and judged (by the left) of “torture” when they dutifully applied set policy and followed legal standards carefully to conduct responsible enhanced interrogations that were effective in saving innocent lives.
_______________________

Scroop, your spin on my use of the word “appeasement” was disingenuous and distorted. Your misunderstanding of my point is profound. I never implied or stated that our official or officers were guilty of “appeasement” and you knew that before your faked the impression that I did. You can dish out lots of moralistic judgmentalism and accuse our honest and loyal officials of alleged “torture”, but you fake outrage in accusing others of making similar accusations that they did not even make.
___________________

Report comment to moderator

When? Tell us whether that was before or after 9/11? Before or after the CIA interrogations? Timing matters you know. Attempts to indict and judge people in hindsight with new rulings is not justice. The enhanced interrogations conducted to get better human intelligence to save innocent lives were well conducted considtently with the legal and lawful policies on the table at the time. Great care was taken to conform to legal understandings at the highest levels. The partisan vendetta against the Bush administration and the CIA involves changing the terms, standards, definitionrules and rules and then applying them backwards for political gain.

“Torture is always illegal.”

This was not legally “torture.” It was enhanced interrogation, well vetted for legality and effectiveness. We disagree on our definition of torture. The left is working with different definitions and insisting that we take their definitions as fact. It’s a political vendetta.

The Bush administration deserves credit for protecting us successfully for 8 years and removing a great deal of terrorists from the field of terrorism to keep us safe. I wish the left in America hated terrorists just half as much as they hate Bush and the right. Leftists have lived on enough on Bush demonizing. It’s time to get on the stick and take responsibility for themselves and their decisions.

Report comment to moderator

So, when I wrote my response to your view of Democrats’ moral “compromise,” I fairly characterized this alleged compromise as a compromise with murder, not just as a compromise with “immorality.” I’m making the fair point that if some Democrats see abortion as immoral, which is a matter that principled people can choose not to prosecute, they rarely see it as murder, which is something no respectable person can overlook. You can accuse Democrats of murder, but you can’t accuse them of compromising with murder, because a compromise requires a recognition of the nature of the thing with which they are compromising.

Report comment to moderator

Actually, JOEL, the Supreme Court ruled that the laws against torture apply to the war on terror. Torture is always illegal. Anyone who tortured or approved of torture or tried to rationalize torture is guilty of torture.

If accusers of the Bush regime have a political vendetta, you may just have to suck that up as rough justice, JOEL. What matters is whether the accusations are true. Part of the punishment for wrongdoing is getting punished by people who are worse than you are. Boo hoo.

You admit that torturers have the duty to consider the fail hypothesis for torture, so that’s a step toward your rehabilitation, JOEL. You need to take another step and abandon your prejudice against conventional interrogation. By calling this “appeasement,” you slander the diligent, hard work of the hundreds of CIA officers whose dedication to our mission and lawful practices brought forth all of the information that was vital and useful for saving life.

These honest and loyal American officers, veterans of the front line of our nation’s mission to fight evil, have done us the service of explicating the CIA inspector general report, which proves that lawful interrogation practices — which you unfairly, dishonestly, and disrespectfully slander as appeasement — provided all of the information that enabled us to protect lives.

Against that information, JOEL, what do you have but the false worship of the argument from authority, the word of Dick Cheney?

Report comment to moderator

Abortion is one of the most difficult issues facing society.

I think people should be encouraged not to have abortions. I don’t think abortion should be punished as a crime.

If we abort a child a day before it is born, my reaction to the act would be the same as if it was murdered after its birth.

To evaluate some forms of birth control or “day after” pills as murder does not persuade me it is murder.

Genocide against adults bothers me more than abortion. If abortion of American babies is murder, than abortion of Chinese babies is just as much murder.

Sex is dangerous for a thousand reasons. No society has been very successful at controlling and channeling human sexual urges in constructive ways. The evangelical Christian approach seems to be to post thousands of self-righteous messages. This is probably constructive as it keeps you occupied when you might be engaged in even worse and more useless mischief.

Report comment to moderator

Report comment to moderator

Report comment to moderator

And you are dead wrong to calim that abortion is a “private” choice. It directly impacts the child, the dad, the grandparents, the community, the church and the country. Slave masters in the old South also thought that their ownership of slaves was a “private choice” too.

Report comment to moderator

Read what I wrote. I said abortion isn’t murder. Lots of things are immoral. So what? Very few people think abortion is murder. If you want us to use government to interfere with private choices, wrong isn’t enough.

I think it’s wrong to pollute the minds of children with superstition.

Report comment to moderator

Report comment to moderator