Trivialization
Michael Goldfarb links to a post from Andrew Sullivan, once billed as a "gay conservative" but now pretty much just a particularly shrill victim of Bush Derangement Syndrome. He's made yet another charge that President Bush is a "war criminal". It is getting old, Sullivan does it on a fairly regular basis these days. It also trivializes the matter at hand.
Andrew Sullivan is yet again calling the president a "war criminal." This time in response to today's New York Times article revealing that the Bush administration has subjected terror suspects captured abroad to 'severe' and 'brutal' interrogations.
Sullivan has a history of trotting out the charge of "war criminal," sticking the label on George Tenet, Donald Rumsfeld, Pentagon counsel Jim Haynes, and Berkeley law prof John Yoo.
And for what? The Times indicts the Bush administration for exposing terrorists captured abroad to "head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures." Boo hoo. And why does the Times consider this such a dangerous policy? The reporters end the story with this quote, from former Navy lawyer John Hutson, which they must believe to be compelling:
“The problem is, once you’ve got a legal opinion that says such a technique is O.K., what happens when one of our people is captured and they do it to him? How do we protest then?” he asked.
Jules Crittenden has an answer for Sullivan's hysterics (Goldfarb points to this and quotes).
Article neglects to mention we are fighting an enemy that considers powerdrills into kneecaps and videotaped beheading of captives business as usual. That in fact, we have yet to face an enemy in the modern era that observes anything approaching the standards we do. Germany, Japan, North Korea, North Vietnam, Iran, Iraq. Disorientation, isolation, beatings, starvation, summary executions, torture … of the bone-breaking, organ-smashing, electrocuting, bloody-drawing variety.
So does Neptunus Lex.
Well, if the worst that comes out of it is a bit of head slapping, the waterboard or chill temperatures I should think that Privates First Class Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker, only to name two, would consider that an upgrade.
If only we could ask them.
What the New York Times describes is not torture. Harsh, yes. Something that may require amendment, possibly. But it is not using a power drill on a kneecap and it is not beheading a bound and helpless captive. By sawing their head off with a knife. To call something like this a "war crime" is to trivialize what is happening in Burma right now. It shows a shocking lack of perspective - like the lefty sites that declare an American politician "the worst person in the world" while ignoring the reality of places like Iran that hang people for being gay.
War, World news | Gaius October 4, 2007
By Anthony (Los Angeles), October 4, 2007 @ 8:53 pm
Excellent post.
By Gaius, October 4, 2007 @ 9:09 pm
It’s frustrating to even have to write something like this. Thank you, though.
By daveinboca, October 4, 2007 @ 10:58 pm
Andrew Sullivan is becoming the Boy George of blogging. More shape-shifting than the naked eye can follow. I like Neptunus Lex asking a question an insufferable histrionic hysteric like Sullivan could never fathom, let alone answer, from his perch in Provincetown.
By feeblemind, October 5, 2007 @ 7:41 am
Andrew Sullivan’s was the first blog I ever read. Years ago he was an eloquent spokesman for conservatism and a proponent of going to war to topple Saddam. So much so that the Left included him in their deck of cards of hated conservatives and Sullivan was proud to be included. But Sullivan continually waved his homosexuality in the reader’s face so I quit reading his blog. Somewhere along the way he morphed into a moonbat. I wonder what brought about the change? Bush’s opposition to gay marriage?
By feeblemind, October 5, 2007 @ 9:36 am
While you were over at Jules Crittenden, did you read the post ‘Got Kids?’. Doctor’s quizzing kids about their parents habits and posessions and reporting to police. Shocking….