Regarding the new Pew Poll showing the 47% of AMERICANS believe it is permissible to torture SUSPECTED terrorists, Glen Greenwald asks:
"[H]ow is it possible to credibly maintain that we believe torture is some sort of extreme crime and absolute evil when we sat by while our political leaders did it and now refuse to comply with our obligations to prosecute it?"
Good question Glen. I really don't know:
"By doing that, aren't we implicitly though unambiguously conveying that, whatever our rhetoric, we don't really think torture is all that bad?"
Another good question Glen. I guess so:
"We don't "Look Forward" when we think truly awful crimes have been committed; we Look Backwards (sometimes very far backwards) and prosecute them. Whatever else is true, that's the message most Americans have received and embraced: torture is not really worth prosecuting so it must not be truly heinous."
Precisely. And now this view has gained near majority approval.
What's amazing to me is that we did what we did to defend ourselves from terrorists. We seem incapable of understanding that a terrorist's main purpose is to create fear sufficient to cause its objects to harm themselves. I'd have to agree that when a terrorist succeeds in getting half the population of a constitutional democracy to abandon the core principles of that democracy out of fear, they've accomplished their purpose.
Joe H
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The Years Of Writing Dangerously
9 years ago
2 comments:
It was the political left that accomplished this goal, not terrorists. Traditionalists have never been terribly attracted to consequentialism.
Hey Joe. This is from Bro. Conn, an friend from Hawaii days. What you say about Obama's speech at Notre Dame is totally off, IMHO. His audacity there was unbelievable. He's going to tell us what it means to be a good Catholic? Insane.
Drop me a line!
Bro Conn, I have no idea what you're talking about when you say "the political left" accomplished this goal. That statement makes no sense whatsoever. How did the political left get 47% of the country to embrace torture? Who on the political left advocated torture?
As for Obama's comments on faith, what do you find to be so audacious? What he said seemed eminently sensible to me. He said our lack of certainty should humble us, make us less willing to condemn others, be more openminded. Do you disagree with that?
Who is Bro Conn? I remember a Chris Conn. Is that you? Are you teaching philosophy?
Joe H.
Joe
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