Richard Cohen seems to have missed the point. So instead of being scared of bloggers, maybe he should concentrate his mind on what matters.
Blogger Alert: I have written a column in defense of Dick Cheney. I know how upsetting this will be to some Cheney critics, and I count myself as one, who think — in respectful paraphrase of what Mary McCarthy said about Lillian Hellman — that everything he says is a lie, including the ands and the thes. Yet I have to wonder whether what he is saying now is the truth — i.e., torture works.
Can there be any more obtuse question than asking whether it might be possible if torture works?
Let me put it another way.
Say you don’t like the noise of your neighbors. If you take a gun, threaten them, telling to shut up or you’ll shoot. But then they ignore you, so you shoot them. Murder “worked,” right? You’ve now produced quiet.
The question isn’t whether torture works. To put it in terms that even Liz Cheney might be able to understand. It’s not about how carefully you concoct a way to torture. It’s that it is still torture. “Careful” torture is not only irrelevant. It’s an oxymoron. It’s still cruel and unusual punishment that has been deemed morally and legally wrong and beyond the bounds of human decency.
Oh, and intent has nothing to do with. It doesn’t matter how much the Cheneys believe in torture and the practice they are convinced should be embraced, or that they are driven by love of this country, which no one is doubting. Barbaric treatment of human beings, using waterboarding and other inhumane means to achieve an end at any cost is still torture.
Cheney wasn’t right about anything on Iraq. But for some people there just aren’t any consequences. Yet, we’re taking that insanity to another level, deciding that past wrongs can mean he’s right. It’s positively daft, but people like Cohen are doing it.
It’s called a tipping point.
The minute Dick Cheney went on the airwaves in the hopes of turning torture into a political football, the game changed. It’s working because of the Cheneys non stop media juggernaut, in which they are daring the Obama administration to do something about it, while knowing betting they won’t.
Comments are closed.