"Yeah, we waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, I'd do it again to save lives." -- George W. BushSave lives? If torturing prisoners and detainees and getting your own lawyers to OK your illegal programs ended up keeping us in a war longer than it should have, in fact made the war more intense, how are you saving lives? The "intel" you got from torture amounted to nothing. The ability to embolden our enemies and help in recruiting far outweighs anything KSM told you.
Bush might as well brag about killing 100,000s of innocent Iraqi civilians to "save lives".
4 comments:
1. You claim "The "intel" you got from torture amounted to nothing." A previously classified CIA memo released by President Obama last year reported that subjecting KSM to "enhanced techniques" of interrogation -- including waterboarding -- caused him to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to stop a planned 9/11-style attack on Los Angeles. What is the factual basis for your claim?
2. You claim "The ability to embolden our enemies and help in recruiting far outweighs anything KSM told you."
Your claim appears to be based on the notion that fighting back provokes the enemy.
That may be true, but so does not fighting back. Who doesn’t know that? The answer is: a pacifist.
Under your theory, what is the recruiting effect of Obama's Predator drone attacks? The Time Square bomber specifically mentioned that as the motivation for his planned attack. What is the recruiting effect of Gitmo (still open for business under Obama 18 months after he said he would close it)? Or is there a double-standard at play here-- Bush bad, Obama good?
KSM gave a lot of answers. Almost all were made up. If you think an LA attack was stopped due to KSM, why was the attack stopped in Feb 2002 and KSM was arrested in March 2003?
Fighting back is different from attacking. You see Iraq as a place with WMD. I see it as a place that did not. Not in 2003. Defending yourself is not in question, but going into a country for 7+ years and bombing them on false claims is what Bush did. Think of the civilians that died. All their relatives. That would make me want to fight the US more than KSM giving zero actionable evidence in a room 6000 miles away.
As for drones, we are using them more in Pakistan. Seems this is working. No one is against drones' usage, it's the way the are used.
Gitmo is a much changed situation, while not closed, it is on its way.
Details and nuances make a difference, you seem to want to paint with a "us vs them" child's brush like Bush did.
As for Obama good, Bush bad. It's Obama good, Bush the worst.
So Obama uses Predator drones in a way that is less likely to provoke terrorists (despite what the actual Times Square terrorist said)? How does he do this?
So Gitmo now is changed in such a way that is less likely to provoke terrorists? Changed how?
Your Obama worship is clouding your reasoning faculties.
is the Times Sq bomber now the voice of the multi-cultural, multi-lingual, international terror world?
You can use weapons differently. There are levels of force. Frequency.
Gitmo has changed. No longer promoted in the same way. It may be a relative term to which you can criticize, but its going in the correct direction.
You can poke fun, claim I have lost reasoning faculties. Maybe I'm too positive. From a guy nicknamed "43" I know it is unbiased, has great perspective and based on a lot of successes from 2000-08.
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