Torturing for Political Excuses

Wow. I thought the 8 years of Republican "leadership" had already hit so many bottoms of decency but now I learn that we didn't just torture to try to find Osama or stop the next terrorist act, it was to force some of Saddam's henchmen to make a statement of collusion that would falsely link Iraq with Al Qaeda (and, of course, justify the U.S. invasion and help Bush say "SEE!").

This new information comes from Ali Soufan, an ex-FBI agent, who helped attain info from Abu Zubaydah by outwitting him.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff at State, wrote that the “harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002 ... was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and Al Qaeda.” -- In The Washington Note, a political and foreign policy blog (reported in the NYTimes, Dowd).

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times reports that Soufan told Congress, "Torture is designed to force the subject to submit 'through humiliation and cruelty' and 'see the interrogator as the master who controls his pain.'"

Dowd continues, "It’s a good description of the bullying approach Cheney and Rummy applied to the globe, and the Arab world. But as Soufan noted, when you try to force compliance rather than elicit cooperation, it’s prone to backfire."

That sums up the entire difference between the Bush Republicans and liberal Democrats. The first are bullies who shove, lie, manipulate and humiliate in order to get their way. They can't see how sharing, talking, listening, and cooperating would help their cause. Anyone who listens and respects another's perspective is considered a sissy, a coward, and whatever other derogatory word that means you are not a man. Women, they think even less of you! On guard!

When will this middle-school nightmare end? You'd think that an election would settle it, but sore-losers don't go away quietly.