If you call up someone in the Syrian government and ask them to take jurisdiction of a Canadian citizen and torture the shit out of them to find out what they know, then you are essentially acting under Syrian Law rather than under the laws of this country or the laws of Canada. Now, I’m sure that Syria has many fine laws, but their laws don’t determine what it is legal to do in this country.
I also find it strange that people in our government thought it was a good idea to trust Syria to torture the shit out of people and give us reliable information emanating from that torture when we don’t trust them on anything else and even find it necessary and desirable to bomb them (or acquiesce in the Israelis bombing them) from time to time.
If I had my way, everyone involved in using Syria as our proxy torture chamber would suffer the same fate as Saddam Hussein. Is there a reasonable interpretation of my opinion that judges me as a radical?
Everyone in the Bush administration who has committed heinous crimes should be indicted, convicted if found guilty, and punished to the fullest extent of the law. This is an absolute necessity if we wish to call ourselves a nation of laws.
But I’m sure Obama will never do it.
“Is there a reasonable interpretation of my opinion that judges me as a radical? “
Absolutely not.
And if Obama’s AG will not do it, I hope some citizen with standing will.
Agreed, although I’d rather see them sit in a cell twenty three hours a day, rot, and think about what they’ve done. Not that they would. But one can dream.
I don’t think you’re radical at all.
Radical would include (perhaps) calling for public hangings (by the neck until dead, none of this “human neck breaking” shit) in the Washington Nationals’ stadium, where the criminals can be pelted with garbage, shoes, and offal as they choke.
Afterwards, the bodies should be distributed to stray dogs and cats.
That’s radical (and just barely).
You wrote up your points justifying the Dems and Obama voting to fund keeping our troops in Iraq. You also deserve Saddam treatment. Get a rope. You are just as much a part of the problem as those you like to point your fingers at. Your inflated ego continues to work as a fine shield.
It had nothing to do with actionable intelligence. Interrogation experts know torture doesn’t work. This is all about getting us to accept a brutal dictatorship over the rule of law. Cheney and Bush, and others, are psychopaths/sociopaths who get a kick out of that.
that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Torture and the threat of torture can give you good intelligence. But the problem is that it also gives you bad intelligence. If you don’t know the answer I’m looking for, you’ll provide me with answer anyway to make me stop torturing you.
But as anyone with experience on the playground will tell you, violence and the threat of violence is one quick way to get the information you seek. It’s just not reliable, and it’s morally wrong, and it undermines our security over the long haul.
Well, BooMan, maybe you are just a wee bit left of center, but radical, certainly not. As a civilization, we are coming (if we are not already there) to a moment of truth. Faced with massive breakdown of our laws by the people elected and appointed to enforce them, what do we do? What do we do also re a financial system that has put all of us at risk because its leaders are so addicted to money and power. I think both elements are linked closely together.
I think we must bite the bullet and bring all these law breakers to trial. I know it will rend the union, but is there any choice? The wound must be lanced and the political and financial pus released. If we take the shorter more expeditious route, the patient may improve for a time, but the poison will continue to spread ultimately creating a worse, possibly fatal, situation.
Our democracy may fail to a dictator promising a return of prosperity and national well being. In a world of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons coupled with the threat of global warming this could create the nightmarish threat of planetary destruction.
The time for action is now. Let all citizens, right, center, and left cooperate for the common good of everyone. Lone live the republic.