Not even Hitler, Stalin, or Mao has publicly demanded the right to torture

[HomerRamone]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=25048

'On being 'good Americans' in a time of torture'

Fred Branfman, Zmag

<...>

Conservative Totalitarianism

Ending torture will have a major impact beyond torture itself for a simple reason: as slavery was the linchpin to the entire pre-bellum Southern social order, torture has become integral to today's conservative ideology. Conservative ideology was once a coherent set of ideas built around limiting state power over the individual. It has today degenerated into a rationale for expanding executive power over the individual, including not only the right to torture but the right to spy on citizens, wage aggressive war while lying about it, prevent gay people from marrying, deny a woman the right to an abortion, publish disguised government propaganda in the media, and even deny us the right to die in peace if conservatives decree that we must live as vegetables or in unendurable pain.

It is no coincidence that the executive's right to torture was defended not only by Bush and Cheney, but also by conservative ideologues at The Weekly Standard, financed by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and edited by William Kristol, who published a cover story by Charles Krauthammer-- widely admired in conservative circles-- which declared that "we must all be prepared to torture" to save American lives. Or that The National Review opined that "if McCain's amendment becomes law ... we will then be able to apply only methods formulated to deal with conventional soldiers in a different sort of conflict than the one that faces us now. This is folly."

Today's conservative movement has been reduced to a set of impulses, above all a totalitarian impulse to support the expansion of autocratic power it was founded to restrain. Since its ideological blinders prevent it from developing sensible measures to reduce terrorism, it has turned to justifying only those policies that expand executive power and seek to rule through coercion, threats, and violence.

Whatever a movement to abolish torture will achieve for society, it is clear what participating in it means for each of us as individuals. It means above all that our children and grandchildren will not remember us with shame, that they will not one day have to try to justify to our victims our failure to oppose the torture being conducted in our names, and that the term "Good American" will mean just that, and not an excuse for fear or indifference, like the idea of the "Good German."

When we fight to end torture we not only fight for human decency, international law, democracy, and freedom.

We fight for ourselves.

Fred Branfman is a writer and long-time political activist. His email address is [e-mail] and his website is www.trulyalive.org. He is writing a book entitled Facing Death at Any Age.

Source: Zmag
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=1&ItemID=9802

This article comes from The Smirking Chimp
http://www.SmirkingChimp.com

The URL for this story is:
http://www.SmirkingChimp.com/article.php?sid=25048

[...of J.Temperance]

1. No, however

As much as I dislike Junior, I can't actually compare him to Hitler, Stalin or Mao at this time.

They all tortured away from the public eye, yes. However, the death that happened with Hitler, Stalin and Mao incredibly outweighs the death that's happened with Junior.

Hitler, Stalin and Mao, I mean we're talking MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of people here. I'm just attempting to keep this in some kind of logical perspective is all.

Of course, there are disturbing similarities in what I'd call other areas, such as the stifling of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, the entire if one dissents it's somehow un-Patriotic, demonizing of various groups et al.

On Edit: Dammit spelling error and added sentence.

[HomerRamone]

2. He covers that in the article.

It was hard to know which part to excerpt, but he says that just because it hasn't been on the same scale (yet) doesn't mean that it doesn't raise the same issue of evil...

[...of J.Temperance]

3. Okay

Sorry :) I didn't read the whole article, I just read those bits, and yes I know often with articles it's difficult to choose what bits to post. I'll read the whole article.

[Laelth]

4. That's an excellent essay.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention. :patriot:

-Laelth

[Skeptor]

5. Bush the torturer has friends everywhere who refuse to condemn him;

which, with their knowledge, and their continuing pledges of allegiance, is the same as condoning and supporting it. Prime Ministers John Howard in Australia, and Tony Blair in Britain, would probably not condone torture within their own jurisdictions. But they will share the blame in the histories to be written.