We Have Met the Enemy and We are Them

Thanks...in some sense of 'thanks'...to Canis Major for this.

Turns out that the torture techniques we're now employing were designed to mimic those used by the Red Army, North Korea and the North Vietnamese.

In case you're wondering, you don't usually get evil all at once. It begins with callous indifference to the suffering of one's fellow man, then moves on to the rationalization stage in which one frantically flails about for reasons--often all too readily available and all to plausible-seeming to the willing mind--to support the conclusion that "this is different"...then comes the demonization and dehumanization of your enemies...

This is NOT--I repeat NOT--the fucking country I grew up respecting and loving, and fuck the bastards who think this is alright. I'm no pacifist--not by a long shot. I've been in a helluva lot more fights and been involved in a helluva lot more violence than most of the he-man wingnuts who are standing on the sidelines cheering on Dear Leader and his crew of incompetent villains. I know that violence is sometimes necessary and morally obligatory. And I have no illusions about how bad some--some--of the people we're fighting are.

Fuck the bastards who think I'm not patriotic for thinking that human fucking beings have rights and that torture is a last--a last--A VERY FUCKING LAST--resort. Glenn Reynolds & co. can just go ahead and stamp me patriotically incorrect. Comes a point when one wears that label with pride.

You want to get information out of most of these people? Want to know what I suggest? Bring them to the states. Walk them around my campus and let them talk to people. Take them to the park. Introduce them to some little kids. Sure, there'd have to be guards with 'em. Big deal. Take them for a hike in the Blue Ridge. I'll go with them. I'm not afraid of 'em. These guys aren't made of C-4. They don't have laser-beam eyes. Bring them here and show them we're human. Appeal to their humanity, their rationality, their consciences. Admit that we know we've done wrong--in many cases very wrong--things in the Middle East, but that we want to change, but we cannot and will not allow ourselves to be attacked again.

There are, no doubt, some evil and some insane people in custody at Guantanamo and elsewhere. But most of them aren't. The hard cases won't respond to this. But many of them will. But for Chrissake DO NOT torture 'em all and let God sort them out.

I've gone on record many times to the effect that torture is permissible--even obligatory--under certain circumstances. But we've got absolutely no reason to think that those conditions have been met.

We're creating monsters. We're turning them into monsters. We're turning ourselves into monsters.

(Nietzsche: "Whoever battles monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster.")

Well, we forgot about that part. And look at us now.