in all honesty and reality, torture is as much a part of war as getting your blood drawn is part of your annual physical at the doctor's. the actual criminals are the ones who sanction and start war, the politicians, like the congress who gave shrub a blank check to start wars and to fund them; the pentagon hawks who know full well what war is; people like colon bowell who also knows what war is. and the american people, many of whom know what war is. the people who put soldiers in harms way and pretend, for self serving political and publicity reasons, that torture comes as a shock and is a no-no, refusing to take responsibility for what they themselves have caused.
does anyone in their right mind, including sanctimonious, self-righteous joe biden -- who voted for the war and the money -- believe war is possible without torture? give me a break. joe's been around enough to know better.
i've had psych patients who cut viet cong's hands off during the vietnam war; and almost got their hands cut off by the cong. and know people who've pushed viet cong suspect out of helicopter doors while the copters were in the air (just in case you had any doubts), used electrodes. and etc, and etc.
the point is, not to have wars, stupid.
R
----- Original Message ----- From: "Eubulides" <paraconsistent at comcast.net> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Friday, June 11, 2004 6:32 AM Subject: [lbo-talk] John Yoo: torture apologist
http://www.latimes.com COMMENTARY With 'All Necessary and Appropriate Force' In interrogations, U.S. actions align with treaties and Congress' wishes. By John C. Yoo
John C. Yoo, a law professor at UC Berkeley and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, worked from 2001 to 2003 at the Justice Department, where he analyzed the Geneva Convention's a
June 11, 2004
Official Washington has been struck by a paroxysm of leaking. It involves classified memos analyzing how the Geneva Convention, the 1994 Torture Convention and a federal law banning torture apply to captured Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Critics suggest that the Bush administration sought to undermine or evade these laws. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) claimed this week that the analyses appeared "to be an effort to redefine torture and narrow prohibitions against it."
This is mistaken. As a matter of policy, our nation has established a standard of treatment for captured terrorists. In February 2002, President Bush declared that the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be treated "humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, consistent with the principles" of the Geneva Convention. Detainees receive shelter, food, clothing, healthcare and the right to worship.