Comments (13) Jump to Comments Form

1. 

   Lavocat said, 6 months ago

   Ding, ding, ding, ding!

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

2. 

   tpenna said, 6 months ago

   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.

3. 

   mattro53 said, 6 months ago

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

4. 

   cdward said, 6 months ago

   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.

5. 

   lcbiii said, 6 months ago

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

6. 

   lifeofB said, 6 months ago

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

7. 

   Bill_Clay said, 6 months ago

   “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.

8. 

   fennec said, 6 months ago

   progano1, you strike me as being a very negative idealist. I really don’t believe that the majority of US citizens want the world’s fear and repulsion. There are, in any society, some pathological personalities, but no nation can be defined by this image unless you are going to say the human race as a whole is this way.

9. 

   Lavocat said, 6 months ago

   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.

10. 

    audieholland said, 6 months ago

    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.

11. 

    sfiller said, 6 months ago

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

12. 

    sfiller said, 6 months ago

    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.

13. 

    daza22 said, 6 months ago

    @Bill_Clay

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

    FTFY