torture report

was the disastrous iraq war a result of botched interrogations under torture?

prisoners under torture were asked questions such as "what are the links between al qaeda and iraq?" the man under torture, al liby, of course figured out he needed to invent some links.

it's peculiar to hear chris matthews on air, apparently trying to figure out if he's pro or con torture.  he always plays the gadfly but he sounded actually confused on the issue?  and why did the crawl say 20 prisoners were tortured. 20!? that is a grossly misleading description of the report and the numbers who were abused.  what a lame shlocky show. (i just happened to watch it tonight- obviously i got annoyed)

"its always existed," he says "why does it exist if it doesn't serve a purpose" (paraphrase)

the answer is it does serve a purpose- intimidation.

not information.

torture will never disappear, because it very effectively serves to intimidate.   despots, terrorists and authoritarian repressive governments will find it a useful tool.  everyone knows that- we learned it on school playgrounds. but it doesn't get reliable information.

it's odd to watch "experts" wrestle with issues any simple minded layman understands.  just shows how fake some of these tv debates are i guess.

the people who did this are war criminals who've brought shame on the home of the brave. the use of torture degrades and weakens our american democracy.  it gives justification to our enemies. and alienates our allies. it's illegal and immoral and it doesn't stop terrorists. we've abrogated the geneva conventions but that doesn't mean those who did it can't be arrested,  international agents may someday have our home grown pinochets in custody. ok, probably not, shame.

jihadis are pretty blasé about torture, they are more worried about cartoonists, so i doubt that they are going to explode in renewed violent outrage, but the report may spur extremist recruitment.  i blame the perpetrators, not the messengers.