January 7, 2005
HE SOUNDS LIKE LUCILLE LA VERNE:
Promoting Torture's Promoter (Bob Herbert, 1/07/05, NY Times)
If the United States were to look into a mirror right now, it wouldn't recognize itself.The administration that thumbed its nose at the Geneva Conventions seems equally dismissive of such grand American values as honor, justice, integrity, due process and the truth. So there was Alberto Gonzales, counselor to the president and enabler in chief of the pro-torture lobby, interviewing on Capitol Hill yesterday for the post of attorney general, which just happens to be the highest law enforcement office in the land.
Mr. Gonzales shouldn't be allowed anywhere near that office. His judgments regarding the detention and treatment of prisoners rounded up in Iraq and the so-called war on terror have been both unsound and shameful. Some of the practices that evolved from his judgments were appalling, gruesome, medieval.
But this is the Bush administration, where incompetence and outright failure are rewarded with the nation's highest honors.
Anyone else have a hunch that the American people, who just re-elected the torturer-in-chief, are comfortable with their self-image? Posted by Orrin Judd at January 7, 2005 5:10 PM
When, ever, have you read Herbert and thought, "Good point and tight argument."? Why does the op-ed page for the brights feature someone who does all his thinking with his glands? Was it a package deal with Dowd. Sweet mysteries of life. The tradition of the Anthony and Flora Lewis empty calory is sustained.
Posted by: LUCIFEROUS at January 7, 2005 6:18 PMIf it weren't for his melanin, Bob Herbert would be driving a bus somewhere.
Posted by: Bart at January 7, 2005 6:23 PMFour more years!
Posted by: Ali Choudhury at January 7, 2005 8:25 PMAccording to my IANAL reading of the Conventions, we'd be within our rights to summarily execute many of the people we've captured in Iraq, for being spies and saboteurs fighting out of uniform.
Posted by: PapayaSF at January 7, 2005 8:59 PMHerbert drive a bus? No way. Can't keep a civil tounge. Think carwash.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at January 7, 2005 9:04 PM