Obama’s Ludicrous Declaration on Torture Day
President Obama issued a statement today on the United Nations International Day in Support of Torture Victims.
I wonder if Obama’s ghostwriter was wearing hip boots when this statement was put together.
The opening of his statement could have been recycled from the George W. Bush years: “Torture is contrary to the founding documents of our country, and the fundamental values of our people.”
Obama declares that torture “surrenders the moral authority that must form the basis for just leadership. That is why the United States must never engage in torture, and must stand against torture wherever it takes place.” (He neglected to mention that the U.S. is also obliged to never release any photos documenting torture – unless the torture was committed by foreign governments who were not allied to the U.S.).
Obama declared: “My administration is committed to taking concrete actions against torture and to address the needs of its victims… My budget request for fiscal year 2010 includes continued support for international and domestic groups working to rehabilitate torture victims.”
Well now ain’t that just dandy.
Spending U.S. tax dollars for private groups aiding torture victims supposedly compensates for Obama’s coverup of the evidence of U.S. government torture and his de facto pardon of all the torturers and torture policymakers.
It’s interesting that “Today’s Cartoon” is from a cartoonist that apparently supports torture (see his April 23, 2009 “cartoon.)
Good pretending.
Let’s pretend to be conservatives who don’t want war or torture.
We’ve apparently got that promise (no torture, quick end of the war), and it turns out what we really wanted was to punish or destroy republicans, and any “conservatives” who might listen to Rush or Hannity of Beck. Regardless of any silly little matter that such actions (like releasing publicity on the “already punished criminality” of rogue servicepeople) might actually cause the deaths of US military personnel, and, possibly prolong unnecessarily our removing ourselves from this war.
One argument is, well, let’s just bring everyone home next week, then close and lock our doors (US borders), then it won’t matter what embarrassing information we release.
Get out all 10 fingers, and let’s do some math. The death toll was about 4,000 up thru the trade tower bombings, when we began to say, this criminal model is not working, and we’re going to a war footing, because it seems that state-sponsored groups are informally at war with us, already, whether we like it or not.
You could say, “Well, what about the 5,000 deaths of US citizens involved, since then?” And let’s say somebody replies, “Yeah, but what if those deaths would have happened anyway, but perhaps domestically, if we hadn’t carried the war overseas?”
Then some troublemaker would ask, “Why can’t we wait, for this controversy, until US servicepersons are out of harm’s way? Couldn’t we come back to all this then? For now, such arguments simply embolden (“create”) our enemies.”
This would, unfortunately, expose us for the pretenders we were. …when we claimed our first priority was ending torture and war. Turns out we had just “co-opted” that movement, to help the political-left.
Come on Jim! Did you not know? We don’t torture. You are confusing torture with concepts such as “harsh interrogations” or “enhanced interrogation techniques” or whatever it is the latest phrase the New York Times or NPR faithfully repeats from the Emperor’s court jesters in the Village DC.
JhonKarlos: That awful “Today’s Cartoon” is a paid advertisement, and it wasn’t run by us in advance. We’re locked in to run this ad a little longer; I’ve been blindsided by it.