Shock and awe but "Yes, I do condone torture." Because it's effective? I have no idea. Because it's needed? Once again, no idea. Because I'm just a Right wing jack booted lackey that rubber stamps everything that the Bush Administration does? Hmmmm.....Close, but no. My reasoning on the subject is actually a little more complex than just blind acceptance but I'll admit part of me wants to say "Yes" just to watch the liberal rant flow in.
It's like this:
This is my country. Some people don't like it, but I DO. Some people think this country is all wrong. I think that they are wrong. However these general disagreements in opinion and are no big deal. Hey, we don't have to agree!
Then there are these people. They blame everything on the US. The Middle East is full of corrupt dictators who allow their own people to languish in poverty and they say it's our fault. They have one export that accounts for most of the capital they do have and we buy it from them and they say that their money problems are our fault. The Jews are in Israel after stomping their religious warriors and the warriors of their faith can't seem to win the battles against them needed to "take it back" and they say this is our fault.
Once again, I disagree. I don't make policy and the people who do make policy don't exactly have me on speed dial for daily insight into what they do. Still, your leaders were corrupt before we bought your oil. Your people were poor before we bought your oil. The Jews whipped your religious militias before we bought your oil or gave them support. Your lack of export complexity has more to do with your lack of modernization than the fact that we buy your oil. In short, I think you're putting a lot of blame on us for stuff that you're responsible for or should fix on your own.
All of that was moot though, because it was just a disagreement. That is, until this:
Your like-minded blame brokers danced in the streets at people, not policy makers, dying. Whatever civility and compromise that could have been had is pretty much dead as an option. Whatever point you wanted to make is lost under the effect of what you did.Some would argue the moral high ground. How we treat our prisoners is what separates us from them. Some would say that by treating these killers humanely we are setting a global example. I believe that you're right in that we do set an example. After watching our soldiers dead bodies drug through the streets and hung from bridges, from watching civilian workers beheaded and from watching terrorists torture and bomb their own Muslim people we do set a example by worring about the "Terrorist rights": High minded weakness.
Make no mistake, while it's shocking and horrible for the average citizen to think about, it's not the average citizen that they ship off to Russia or Romania or where ever they send them. These aren't just random guys off the street. These are people that have, can, have planned or will try to kill any American they can just because you're American. That's all. Housewives, they'd love to kill you. Graphic Artists, they'd love to kill you, too. Insurance salesmen, they'd love to kill you , too. Why? What did you ever do to them? Nothing. Just like the people in the twin towers or on those flights. You're American, and that's enough.
I think the stupidest thing about our government's system is that we will allow a person to become specialized in a field and then we don't utilize what they tell us. We have school principals who have multiple degrees in education that have their education directives handed down to them in the form of Zero-tolerance rules by dropout housewives on a schoolboard. We have highly educated economists that can explain how to eliminate the deficit spending and black hole Social Security funding, yet our policy is decided on by elected lawyers. We have the job of protecting people given to trained and experienced law enforcement, agents and soldiers, yet businessmen decide the rules of engagement and objectives. That's messed up.
I'll be honest, I love my family. I'd do anything to protect my wife and kids and I'd assume that most people are the same. So, when it comes to the threats against their safety I know that it's pretty unlikely that my wife and my boys would be at the right place at the right time to be at risk from some nutbag on a jihad in Dallas. I'm more worried about when and where she drives. However, that doesn't mean that I'm willing to sit back and remove any of the tools from the people who have to fight an asymmetrical battle. I don't know what will happen or where, but I do know that I want those who are involved in our intelligence gathering duties to do what ever they can to protect your family even and mine, even if the way they do it would make me squeamish. I don't want to see more pictures of Americans bleeding, buildings falling and kids at makeshift shrines.
For that reason, if the CIA feels that they can prevent another attack by hooking up a terrorist's scrotum to a car battery in Russia I have only one thing to say:
"Red is positive, Black is negative."
If the extremists of the Arab world can't respect the difference in our beliefs then they can fear the reciprocity if their actions. 2996 lives taken from us demand nothing less.
