Posted on 09/18/2006 7:43:27 PM PDT by tobyhill
the rules for what the military can do aren't even an issue here - its all about what the CIA is allowed to do under presidential directive. any bill that seeks to water that down, is a disaster for this country in the war on terror.
I can surely call them stupid - and I am.
I can call Einstein stupid. Doesn't make him dumb, or me smart.
that analogy is meaningless to the issue at hand.
That's not torture. One can endure the same thing, I am told, in advanced infantry camp. That is just making the prisoner uncomfortable, and thus more likely to talk. Causing them excrutiating pain with requisite permanent, or semi-permanent health problems, is torture. That we should not do. But making them stand up awhile, or questioning them until they yawn? That's not torture. It's just good interrogation tactics.
anything and everything is "torture" by these definitions. unless the prisoners are housed in hotel style accomodations, with plenty of time for rest, meals, exercise, religious practices. in the meantime, the enemy is beheading people, and idiots like McCain and the people aligned with him, saying NOTHING about that.
None of the countries that we are currently at war with, or will go to war with, are going to use Geneva Conventions...
The Congress was asked, begged, implored by SCOTUS to clarify what the hell the words mean. It is their job and they are ducking the responsibility and trying to lay it back on the court, because they are PO'd at SCOTUS for making them work.
It's a simple as that. Another power play. A feeble attempt to get the courts to do their work again.
Nobody knows what those words mean! Every county has to define it by their own cultural morays, and these Senators refuse to do so, because they can't. They don't want the responsibility, and want the issue to return, time and time again to the courts.
We cannot operate this way. It has got to end.
Maybe we should buy them dinners, chill a bottle of bubbly for them, and send them to Branson for the weekend.
county=country
alot is at stake here. do we have the votes to sustain a veto? that's the real political calculation here.
frankly, for Bush, doing nothing may be the best outcome here. continue to hold these AQ people in limbo, and let the issue be taken into the 2008 presidential race.
Don't forget the Brie!
Because of the Hamdan decision handed down by the Supreme Court several weeks ago. Try to keep up.
The congress could make it easy for everyone but putting three words into law,"whatever it takes". If it takes a bunch of belly slaps and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to save American lives then so be it but the ones interrogating shouldn't have to worry about prosecution because of subjective interpretations. I've heard the argument about only getting false information from "torture" but a good interrogator can take a page of lies and find truthful facts within the lies but sometimes it takes harsh measures to even get them lying.
The Hamdan decision.
we in essence do that now. Gitmo is a country club. the top AQ people were held by the CIA in different locations for a reason. That's the key to this issue - what the CIA can do.
Maybe we shouldn't waterboard captives. We didn't do it to Japs or Krauts, North Koreans or North Vietnamese. We have lower moral standards today, and it's causing McCain and Lindsey Graham and George Schultz and Gen. Vessy a little culture shock to get used to this. But they'll eventually give in, I suspect. It's a barbaric world, and it's high time America climed into the muck. The standards of the era of MacArthur and Eisenhower (let alone Washington and Putnam, Grant and Sheridan) have to be consigned to history's ashheap. We have to grow up and get down in the gutter with our enemies.
I see you've met Neville. LOL
Veto it! If it goes that far.
If he loses, then let history write the story.
They don't have enough to override a veto and just keeping the terrorist in limbo may end up being the best option for President Bush.
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