Torture memos

[classicman]

lol - I thought at first I posted it in the wrong thread. (re:Harman)

re: the torture... I dunno - I don't want anyone to endure that kind of shit, but they attacked us and that was a time when many were waiting for the next attack. Its difficult to know what really was going on "behind the scenes". The left wants to hang them by the balls and the right wants to thank them. I'm just glad I'm not sitting in the hot seat on this one.
I don't see the benefit of releasing this info, other than politically. Now its gonna drag on forever. I think Obama may have just released a huge albatross that will hang around the neck of the nation for a long time.
Much of what was done was not what I consider torture, some was.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by classicman

I think Obama may have just released a huge albatross that will hang around the neck of the nation for a long time.

Except that everyone in the world knew what was going on. If the information hadn't been released, people would have been left guessing for the next decade. Also, some of the techniques people imagined were not done. This is hard to prove unless you can point to what was done.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by richlevy

Except that everyone in the world knew what was going on.
If the information hadn't been released, people would have been left guessing for the next decade.

Not sure I'm reading that correctly - It seems like a contradiction.

They knew or they would be left guessing?

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by classicman

Not sure I'm reading that correctly - It seems like a contradiction.

They knew or they would be left guessing?

They knew that there was torture, but left guessing as to its limits. By admitting to the lower level torture, the administration has gained enough credibility to claim that what was released was the full extent of the torture and that more aggressive methods were not employed.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by classicman

re: the torture... I dunno - I don't want anyone to endure that kind of shit, but they attacked us and that was a time when many were waiting for the next attack.

They?
You have to get pretty general to build a "they" that includes the people who attacked us and the people we tortured.

Heck, even if we are 100% certain that everyone we "really" tortured (as opposed to what apologists dismiss as fraternity hazing) was captured in a battlefield and was actively fighting us, the chances that they were part of the "they" who attacked us before we attacked them are vanishingly small.