Ted Rall for April 23, 2009
April 20, 2009
April 25, 2009
Transcript:
Guard: 181... 182... Prisoner: I'm growing gills. Doctor: Look: Still snotty. Prisoner: Your stupid H2O tricks impress me not. Doctor: We've fried his brain! He's useless! Prisoner: I killed Marilyn Monroe with Jackie Mason's car bomb! Doctor: Finding the right balance requires calculations of body mass, experience, and a stack of legal opinions. Prisoner: A graf zeppelin is headed toward Maine! In March 2003, the CIA waterboarded one man 183 times. These things are very scientific-like. 182 times wouldn't have been enough to make him crack. But 184 times would have been too many. Your government: keeping you safe using nothing but the latest in advanced interrogation technology.
The US is obligated to be the good guys because we exist based only on a set of abstract principles about the rights and dignity of human beings. When we fail to live up to those principles we strike at the heart of what it means to be America.
But many other countries, China, say, or France, exist based on historical momentum. France was France when ruled by the Louies, when guillotining people, when conquering Europe, when colonizing Africa, when occupied by the Germans, and in their current democracy. It’s culture, language, traditions, etc that make France France or China, China, not philosophical or political principles.
Thus, if we don’t live up to our principles we are being unpatriotic and weakening our nation to a greater degree than many other countries.