President Obama's cabinet is in the process of getting confirmed by Congress. Today, they ratified Hillary Clinton's appointment as Secretary of State, but the Attorney General Nominee; Eric Holder has to wait until January 28th due to some concerns held by some members of congress.
-The Republicans requested this delay on his confirmation, because they have some issues with his opinions on torture, and more specifically, the practice of water boarding.
-Mr. Holder believes water boarding of terrorists is torture, and should be illegal. And right now, so do I. You can think about it and justify that it is barbaric and not in line with the golden rule, nor is it congruent with what America should be about.
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As the greatest country on Earth, we should be above that nastiness. We are not a dictatorship or fascist run puppet government. Our stature as a leading country in the world would be in question if we believed that torturing someone is EVER justified. That's what our enemies may do, small minded religious extremists do it, but as my mother used to tell me, "just because your buddy jumps off a bridge does that mean you should also?" or another cliche she adopted as her own: " Two wrongs don't make a right." This is basically Obama's view on torture, as well as Eric Holder's, and mine, at least, that is, for right now.
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While we discuss this issue in the context of confirming someone for the position of Attorney General, that is exactly the position I want him to have. I want the attorney general elect to believe that torture is barbaric and fundamentally wrong as a moral imperative. One person, or group of people should never water board another human being. And as we discuss it in the context of his confirmation it absolutely should not be condoned in a civilized society such as ours.
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If we catch a known terrorist however, and believe that scumbag motherfucker has information that could prevent something like 911 from happening in the future, and we have to water board the fuck out of that dude to pry that information out of him?..... THEN I want an Attorney General who will look the other damned way while that happens. After it all goes down I don't want him to turn around and mess with the CIA spooks or Military Intelligence dudes that did it.
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Ultimately we need an attorney General who honestly believes that water boarding and torture of terrorists is wrong, but that same guy has to understand his role in looking the other way when there is real shit hitting the fan, and it is a necessity for our National Security. I believe congress is worried that the dude is not two faced enough to be AG of the United States of America and that is why they want this delay, but obviously they can't really ask this question of the man, So I will ask it myself. Eric Holder are you two faced enough to be the Attorney General of the United States of America? Do you understand that there is an answer to the questions posed to you by congress that is right, and that there is an answer that is completely opposite of that when American Lives are at stake?
2 comments:
You hit the nail squarely on the head. This is exactly what I think most Americans want. Only in extreme cases, such as a dude knows where the nuclear bomb in Cleveland is located and when it will go off should water boarding be used, and none of us want to know about it. We all subconsciously agree to look the other way. But only in an extreme case such as this.
Excellent insight and a good post.
SCG
SCG-- Thanks -- and your comment further clarifies the cunundrum. If we had a guy in custody and we knew there was a nuclear bomb hidden somewhere in an American City and this guy KNEW the location -- all rules are out the door we have to get that information and thus a lot of theory goes out the window and it is reality at that time
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