WP editorial: "Bush will go down in history for his embrace of torture..."

[DeepModem Mom]

The Abuse Can Continue
Senators won't authorize torture, but they won't prevent it, either.
Friday, September 22, 2006; Page A16

THE GOOD NEWS about the agreement reached yesterday between the Bush administration and Republican senators on the detention, interrogation and trial of accused terrorists is that Congress will not -- as President Bush had demanded -- pass legislation that formally reinterprets U.S. compliance with the Geneva Conventions. Nor will the Senate explicitly endorse the administration's use of interrogation techniques that most of the world regards as cruel and inhumane, if not as outright torture. Trials of accused terrorists will be fairer than the commission system outlawed in June by the Supreme Court.

The bad news is that Mr. Bush, as he made clear yesterday, intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation. Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes.

In short, it's hard to credit the statement by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) yesterday that "there's no doubt that the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved." In effect, the agreement means that U.S. violations of international human rights law can continue as long as Mr. Bush is president, with Congress's tacit assent. If they do, America's standing in the world will continue to suffer, as will the fight against terrorism.... (T)he senators who have fought to rein in the administration's excesses -- led by Sens. McCain, Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.) -- failed to break Mr. Bush's commitment to "alternative" methods that virtually every senior officer of the U.S. military regards as unreliable, counterproductive and dangerous for Americans who may be captured by hostile governments....

Mr. Bush will go down in history for his embrace of torture and bear responsibility for the enormous damage that has caused.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092101647.html?nav=most_emailed

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. I agree.

A thousand years from now he's going to be a sort of Ghengis Khan figure. Only not successful, and a lot more dumb.

[movonne]

6. He is probably banking on this planet not have 1000 years..we will

be lucky if we that are here now will get through this destruction of our planet...

[indepat]

16. Along with all the cretin enablers and other supporters

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. I don't think so.

History doesn't usually remember the serfs.

[indepat]

24. Was only dreaming, but Congresspeople a step up from serfs

constitutionally.

[Ksec]

2. Sick Twisted Depraved.

It makes me ill to think of what this diablo has done to this country.

[AlamoDemoc]

3. I agree...Bush and Saddam will be hand-in-hand in history books

TORTURE IN IRAQ!!!!

[Coexist]

4. let that be his legacy

knr

[Straight Shooter]

5. Bearing responsibility means paying for your crimes.

bush probably had that part read to him by Condi, and he spat out his coffee laughing. Then he farted on the editorial for good measure.

[ShortnFiery]

7. Senor Bush es numero uno el diablo!

Those native speakers please forgive me for not using the accents right. :blush:

But it's catchy - the essence. With a whiff of sulfur. :P :hi:

[Spazito]

8. In all honesty, it has gone beyond simply the bush cabal and it's

supporters, imo. It is not just bush that will go down in history for his embrace of torture, it will be the United States, as a whole, for allowing bush to do this. The line between the actions of the bush cabal and the people of the US is becoming very blurred the longer the US public stands by, either deliberately or because of apathy, and does nothing to stop this.

It will have gone beyond a rogue administration if Congress does not stop this, imo.

[progressisvirtue]

14. agreed.

our entire congress is letting this happen, not just the repubs

[Jacobin]

25. We're all "good Germans" now

We desperately need a congress. Too bad the one in D.C. is AWOL

[Warpy]

9. If we survive as a nation, he will stink up our history books

until the end of time. He'll stink worse than Benedict Arnold, John Wilkes Booth, Bull Connor, or any other villain we can think of.

He's betting we don't survive as a nation. He really believes if he starts enough wars, he'll knock Jebus off his heavenly throne and force him to come back and save all the hypocrites just like him.

I often wish I hadn't lived to see this.

[Solly Mack]

10. Not just Bush.

"Senators won't authorize torture, but they won't prevent it, either"

Which makes those Senators just as guilty

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

11. I am beginning to suspect...

that these Rovian Rethugs wanted this business of the secret prisons out, so that they could get credit from the cheerleader chorus that is the GOP of today.

Like Toohey says in Atlas Shrugged, "there is no point in being vicious and subtle to people who do not even know that you are being vicious and subtle" (not an exact quote, pulled from memory!).

They want us all to know that they have been vicious (equated in their minds with toughness and bought by the idiot kool-aid drinkers).

[mmonk]

12. I think the editorial is incorrect.

Not about torture and bush's legacy, but that the detentions at Guantanamo conforms with international law.

[Generator]

13. And everyone with the power to stand up to this tyrant

Bush and his allies, all Republicans including the "mavericks" like McCain, including all Democrats that let this slide in my mind are WORSE than Bush. That's right-when you see evil being done and you compromise, or shrug or keep your mouth shut as the Democrats are doing you are complicit. I will never forgive these people.

It's like a serial killer just being a serial killer-yeah he's evil, he's sick. We get it. The ones that make excuses for him are the ones that really get my ire. You know, the ones that are supposed to be moral, and probably are SMARTER and don't have the excuse of mental illness. Them. Worse than Bush. Compromising on torture. And for anyone that says oh it's unconstitutional, well even if a court rules as such, it will take years for that to come to light. And all those years-like right this minute, some innocent person is being tortured to make YOU "safe." And by the time (if we are lucky) some court rules to stop it-it will already have been done-for years.

[Jacobin]

15. That's not true AT ALL. CONGRESS will go down in history

as having codified the use of torture, after it was requested by Bush*


THAT is the shame. No checks. No balances. No dissent. Simple-minded compliance.

[countryjake]

19. I think of it as complicity, rather than compliance.

It's part of the whole "let's wage war the right way" phenomenon.

[Jacobin]

26. The president can PROPOSE legislation

CONGRESS can pass legislation.

Congress just gave the Bush Cabal a get out of jail free card, and CODIFIED the use of TORTURE for Americans.

[countryjake]

29. Right! Our nation has codified the use of torture throughout the world...

our military and "intelligence gatherers" set the bar in Iraq, a nation we supposedly "freed" from horrific human rights violations, which is now overflowing with bodies that have been tortured and rendered unrecognizable, far more than that country has ever seen before.

The lesson of politicos saying "do as we say, not as we do", has been driven home with the atrocities committed during our current occupations, and those invasions will forever be seen as wholly American ventures, with the non-debate of "correct torture methods" a glaring sidebar.

[FiveGoodMen]

20. And the Dems aren't even making noise about this.

What's wrong with them? What damn good are they?

[DaveJ]

18. The torture issue is just ...

...a political tool to make Repukes appear stronger on the 'war on terror'. I'm not sure if that it will be what he is most known for in the future. I think his unbelievable stupidity will probably rise to the top, how incredible it is that such a dumb man can make it so far. My fear is that it may set a trend.

[peaches2003]

22. Dumb and evil

I think it is incredible that such an EVIL man can get this far and more incredible that Congress and the American people condone it all!

[DaveJ]

23. We should not have let this happen...

For years, and even more recently, Repukes have been talking about just how utterly ridiculous our candidates are without actually sticking to any issue. Why we missed the opportunity to do the same with Bush is astounding.

[peaches2003]

28. Iraq ia a dream issue

Here the Dems have the issue of Bush's unwarranted and disasterous war, for G-D's sake, and yet Bush is setting the agenda and the Dems can't even stay on track and push the war, war, war. Hell, they can't even present the electorate with a coherent agenda on anything. All I hear is 'the Dems have no plan'.

Our spokespersons are worthless, sorry to say, IMO. If Harry Reid is the best we can do (he may be brilliant, but I am talking an electric spokesman to the public here) then we are lost. He even puts me to sleep and I want to listen to him.

There are attractive and intelligent Dems out there who could connect with the public in an election year. Where are they?

[AX10]

21. And of course the Democrats rolled over and played dead,

yet again!

:eyes:

[warrens]

27. What a legacy this man will leave

Torturer, spendthrift, fascist, warmonger, moron. I think I'll switch to writing history books so I can be the first to pass judgment of the little crudnik.