BY TAYLOR MARSH
Here we go again on torture.
Last night on “The Factor,” Bill had a very strange and wildly wrong fact free segment on the goodness of torture. His basic argument to challenge Rep. Eshoo, who is opposed to torture, was that the Army Field Manual won’t allow any “unpleasantness.” That we don’t torture, but enhanced interrogation is just fine. But that Obama and the “loony left” won’t allow interrogators to do anything, once again, anything “unpleasant.”
Will President-elect Obama’s policies on torture have an impact on your life?
The above question was how he teased the segment on his website, with Rep. Pete Hoekstra representing the “enhanced interrogation” side. After the segment aired, Mr. O’Reilly then had Dick Morris on to discuss the issue.
Any experts or actual interrogators on to discuss the issue? No. John McCain’s views on torture explored? No. Just continual insults towards the “loony left” for actually suggesting what the experts have written about and actual interrogators have talked about for years. Torture doesn’t work. You often get bad information, but even when the facts are good they’re not admissible in court due to — say it with me — techniques used to acquire it that are judged as torture.
Bill O’Reilly reaches a lot of people and he had an opportunity to discuss the issue of torture fairly and in a balanced manner. Instead he chose to insult Rep. Eshoo and the “loony left,” who are basing our assessment on torture on facts, not fearmongering. The question on O’Reilly’s site is the beginning, with Hoekstra adding to the warning by implication, something that should be wholly unacceptable to Mr. O’Reilly or any American: If Obama doesn’t use enhanced interrogation Americans will likely be killed.
Mr. O’Reilly’s “loony left” obsession is doing a disservice to serious subjects like torture, but also leaves a foul stench in the air by implication that any American would want to jeopardize the safety of citizens. The point is that torturing detainees or apprehended suspects does that in and of itself, including making our soldiers more vulnerable in South Asia and around the globe.
Ahmed Rashid, author of “Descent into Chaos” talks about this reality, once Bush-Cheney’s policies of torture and rendition became a global pact.
The international community had gone to great lengths to set up a credible government in Kabul, but the effort was totally undermined when the CIA used the fledgling government and the powerful warlords to run secret prison systems. (page 306)
Once Abu Ghraib exploded on to the pages of every paper around the globe, America’s moral authority in fighting extremism vanished. It also sent a chilling message to countries like Pakistan and Egypt, to name just two, that torture would be condoned and that the Geneva Conventions were indeed “quaint.”
This is a deadly serious subject, one that Mr. O’Reilly should approach with more respect. In order to do that he must leave his “loony left” rhetoric behind, understanding that we all want to keep America safe and that progressives actually have the facts on our side.
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