Ted Rall for May 14, 2009

Ding, ding, ding, ding!

We have a winner! Bull’s eye, Ted. Bull’s eye!

You know, frequently I think Rall crosses a line of taste for no good reason. But this one does a good job of showing where the utilitarian argument that “Waterboarding works” ultimately gets us. Well done, Rall.

Rall gets right to the heart of the matter-again.

The heart of the matter is right – Rall does a great job here. But it makes me wonder which of these techniques we’ve already employed.

We do know that the jihadists have practiced amputation and decapitation up to this point.

if you can’t beat them, join ‘em… right, Ichbiii ?

“We do know that the jihadists have practiced amputation and decapitation up to this point.”

So let’s become what we’re fighting against? We’ve lost the War on Terror when we become a Terrorist State ourselves.

We’re Americans which means, by definition, that we are incapable of acting illegally and - when we inevitably do so - it becomes legal.

Wow. I foolishly spent all that time and money on law school for nothing, apparently.

Well, most Americans do not torture or kill people in far away countries. That’s up to the ‘intelligence and special forces’ and some of the armed forces of America.

The thing is, what most Americans do think about rape and torture by a select few American operatives, does not matter at all.

Because the US of A is not a free country and murder, torture and mass destruction have always been instruments of American foreign policy whether the common American citizen approved of it or not.

School of the Americas, for instance. Sponsoring the Contras to terrorize Nicaraguan civilians, another example. Supporting Pinochet’s coup in Chile in the 70s.

Dropping more tons of bombs over Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia than were dropped in the entire 2nd World War.

NPR: “enhanced interrogation techniques” NYT “harsh”; “waterboarding” as in “snowboarding,” “surfboarding,” “skateboarding”

Progan1 says to Fennec that “the US Constitution … talks about all people being equal,” and the Fourteenth Amendment does provide equal protection of the laws, I think, but we tend to confuse the Constitution with the Declaration. The Fourteenth makese ex-slaves citizens and does other neat stuff. Louis Filler used to have a T/F quiz item that started, “With its declaration that all men are created equal, the Constitution established a basis,” etc.

@Bill_Clay

“We lost the War on Terror when we became a Terrorist State ourselves.”

FTFY