Bruce the veep forwards us this LA Times piece, discussing plans that are afoot in the Department of Defense to change the Army Field Manual to delete that part about avoiding degrading and humiliating prisoners (a/k/a compliance with the Geneva Conventinos on some things), in the interest of “flexibility” to “interrogate” terrorist suspects.
The State Department, which has to deal with other countries, is duly outraged. The JAG Corps of military attorneys are apoplectic. But the Vice-President’s office wants these changes, and damn the torpedoes. Look for tortured-while-a-prisoner-of-war Senator John McCain, who introduced an anti-torture bill that became an “inadvertent” suspension of habeas corpus… to say nothing. Look for Democrats… to say not too much.
Let me make a pragmatic argument here about torture: its not particularly effective as a means of extracting information.
So we’re throwing away our laws, our principles, our treaty obligations, and all semblance of moral authority (and the safety of our own military personnel, btw)… for Dick Cheney’s jollies, and a not-particularly-effective means of information extraction.
Yup. George W. Bush is still in charge.
![The end[?]](https://thetalkingdog.com/wp-content/themes/blogstream/img/thumb-medium.png)
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