The winds we've sown

From a harrowing tale, a cautionary note:

Some may suggest there is no reason to revive the story of abuse in Iraq. Rehashing such mistakes will only harm our country, they will say. But history suggests we should examine such missteps carefully. Oppressive prison environments have created some of the most determined opponents. The British learned that lesson from Napoleon, the French from Ho Chi Minh, Europe from Hitler. The world is learning that lesson again from Ayman al-Zawahiri. What will be the legacy of abusive prisons in Iraq?

Mr. Fair is already paying for the injustices he inflicted upon his fellow human beings. What will we owe for our collective refusal to hold those who ordered these crimes accountable?

Embarrassing

via digby

36% of Americans approve of torture as a means to combat terrorism. About one-third of the entire world thinks that.

Wow. Simply, wow.

Shrill

So certain events have got me down.

I wonder how the average German felt when they realized that Hitler was out of control. They all just wanted to feel safe and secure, to feel good about themselves, and one day they woke up and were in a world they could no longer control, realizing they were powerless against the most efficient regime of brutality ever seen. Did the average men and women collectively reach that point? Or did they sleepwalk their way into calamity?

Our elected officials just had a debate on some of the fundamental principles upon which this nation was built. The right to a fair trial, to be judged by a jury of one's peers. To face your accuser. To see the evidence against you. To not be tortured. These things were up for debate. And then 65 of our elected officials - including 11 Dems - voted against these fundamental principles.

I, of course, have known for a long time that we as a nation have never lived up to these principles, but I always thought they were worthwhile ideals for which we should strive. Now our government has given up even the pretense of striving for these goals.

So much taken away; so little will be gained.

If you thought Horowitz was crazy, check out his readers!

Crazy Dave posts letters from his readers responding to the "routine betrayal of our country's secrets," readers who may be just as crazy as he is!

I`ve been a member of the Intelligence Community (IC) for just under 30 years. I too noticed the fact that individuals from the IC put their personal political views before the oath they took when the were hired.

Now I have no idea whether this person actually works for any sort of intelligence agency, but using the term "member of the Intelligence Community (IC)" a) sounds really dorky and b) is suspiciously vague. For all we know, this person's membership in the "IC" consists of a subscription to Soldier of Fortune magazine.

From 1993 through 2001, there were issues I was aware of that might have been embarrassing had they come to light. I did not feel compelled to find a reporter (but then again (facetiously)where might I have gone?) and it no one else did.

It's a huge step to go from "embarrassing" to "unconsitutional" and "harming national security," as the latest leaks allege. It's not just politically embarrassing to the Bush administration that the war in Iraq is creating more terrorists - it obliterates one of the (many) pretenses for invading Iraq and shows that George W. Bush is demonstrably making this country less safe. It's not about scoring political points, it's about exposing a massive dereliction of duty.

Were I D/CIA General Hayden, I'd take a page from the Left`s book and conduct a rather exhaustive purge.

Only "the Left" conducts purges, eh? Must be news to General Hayden's predecessor and right-wing ideologue Peter Goss who conducted his own purge upon arriving at his post (scroll down) after Tenet was sacked (and subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor). But then, I tend to pay attention to nasty little things called "facts."

I think there are large segments of the CIA that cannot see the threats our country faces, primarily because of their left wing and I dare say, anti-American bias.

These biases are carefully concealed in intelligence publications, but they show up in discussion databases. Perhaps the most telling way to gauge the bias is by what reports are not written i.e. which subjects are taboo to address.

I'm willing to bet a hefty sum of money that Horowitz's reader is going to turn around and rah-rah the torture detainee bill winding its way through the Senate, which will allow these leftist, anti-American CIA bastards the ability to maintain secret prisons, conduct trials with secret evidence, and torture interrogate detainees in order to prevent future terrorist atrocities. Wouldn't this person be worried that the neo-Soviet CIA scoundrels might turn these tools on good, God-fearing Republicans like himself? No? Huh.

I`m not surprised that our fighting Islamist terrorists has made us more enemies. Seems to me that Islam`s 11 September 2001 attack on the United States brought a lot of fighters to our country`s side. If the pinnacle of the IC`s analysis is trumpeting discovery that our fighting Islamists creates more enemies, perhaps it`s time to find some better analysts.

Really? Because Americans were sold on Iraq because it would be a key piece in achieving victory in the War on Terror™. If achieving victory means creating more terrorists, well then, I have no argument for you. However, for those who expected a right and just war to bring more people to our side (the Iraq War didn't) and reduce the number of terrorists (the Iraq War is apparently creating them faster than Bushco can "eliminate" them), Iraq has been nothing but an unmitigated disaster.

One thing does perturb me (and a friend who is in the process of deserting the Left) is that no one on the Conservative side (in politics)is articulating the extent of the threatterror (suicide and remote-controlled) bombings, continued "random" murders by "disturbed" Muslims, and culmination in a (series?) of WMD attacks in the United States and how we should deal with it. We should not be waiting for these attacks to come to have a dialogue on how we should respond.

This person should be concerned. The vaunted Bushco was set to handover port security to (the vapors!) a company owned by a foreign - nay, Arabic! - government. And we've seen the conservative response plan for a catastrophe in its response to Hurricane Katrina. Conservatives have fucked up just about everything having to do with the security of Americans. Maybe the friend who is in the process of leaving "the Left" (what the fuck does that even mean?) should reconsider.

I considered cutting and pasting this person's last paragraph, but I believe Joseph Conrad put our writer's sentiment much more eloquently when he wrote, "Exterminate the brutes."

Argh.

I was ashamed before. Now I'm angry. Sitting around waiting for the GOP to "tear itself apart" over the issue of torture detainee interrogation practices is not leadership. Not saying anything about capital trials with secret evidence for political reasons only weaves a narrative of crass opportunism. Those who we're looking to in order to represent our side don't seem to even want to show up.

Silence was not the right move. This was a fight that should have been fought, and could have been won.

Sickened

So torture is about to be enshrined as official government policy.

I'm ashamed.