The Game Of Politics
Gonzales was interrogated before the senate, and was accused of allowing the torture of prisoners. here is a decent article.
Gonzales probably has very little, if anything, to do with the torture. The democrats in the senate are challenging him for several reasons. First, they want to remind the US population that the attorney general can and will be questioned. Second, they want to shrink the power of the attorney general after Ashcroft built it up. Third, they want a bit of power over Gonzales to make sure he doesn't become the next Ashcroft. The questions have nothing to do with torture, these questions were brought up because torture is one of few things the democrats can pin Gonzales to.
The question of torturing prisoners is not new, though it has rarely seen this much attention, and its current context is original. During the Cold War, it was a rule of thumb that 95% of prisoners would talk if you simply asked them to. In other words, torture was quite unnecessary. However, almost no terrorists will talk, no matter what we try to do with them. They have already determined that they want to die fighting the US, so they would be happy if the US kills them for refusing to talk. Some of the terrorists have actually gone to camps where they learn what the US can and can't do, and study how to better resist interrogation techniques. Those who haven't been to such camps learn quickly.
Thus, I will flip-flop a bit, I now support some hefty torture of those whom the US knows are terrorists. Torture intending to inflict pain, rather than scare the tortured, is not to be done on those whom are only suspected. I don't like to support torture, and I don't want such methods to have a precedent in the American legal system, but I view it as something of a necessity at this time. If future generations look back at this era and admit "some of what they did was horrible – but they had to do it", then the US will turn out alright.
I hope I have written a good starting point for some further discussion, as I believe I have either created some fairly original thoughts or compiled thoughts that were previously scattered. However, my analysis as to what happens next is almost entirely absent, and considerations of what these interrogations show what America has become have slightly more mention.
Gonzales probably has very little, if anything, to do with the torture. The democrats in the senate are challenging him for several reasons. First, they want to remind the US population that the attorney general can and will be questioned. Second, they want to shrink the power of the attorney general after Ashcroft built it up. Third, they want a bit of power over Gonzales to make sure he doesn't become the next Ashcroft. The questions have nothing to do with torture, these questions were brought up because torture is one of few things the democrats can pin Gonzales to.
The question of torturing prisoners is not new, though it has rarely seen this much attention, and its current context is original. During the Cold War, it was a rule of thumb that 95% of prisoners would talk if you simply asked them to. In other words, torture was quite unnecessary. However, almost no terrorists will talk, no matter what we try to do with them. They have already determined that they want to die fighting the US, so they would be happy if the US kills them for refusing to talk. Some of the terrorists have actually gone to camps where they learn what the US can and can't do, and study how to better resist interrogation techniques. Those who haven't been to such camps learn quickly.
Thus, I will flip-flop a bit, I now support some hefty torture of those whom the US knows are terrorists. Torture intending to inflict pain, rather than scare the tortured, is not to be done on those whom are only suspected. I don't like to support torture, and I don't want such methods to have a precedent in the American legal system, but I view it as something of a necessity at this time. If future generations look back at this era and admit "some of what they did was horrible – but they had to do it", then the US will turn out alright.
I hope I have written a good starting point for some further discussion, as I believe I have either created some fairly original thoughts or compiled thoughts that were previously scattered. However, my analysis as to what happens next is almost entirely absent, and considerations of what these interrogations show what America has become have slightly more mention.
posted by Chris at
1:17 AM
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