It's no secret that I thought little of the Bush administration. I thought it was, at its core, corrupt, incurious, entitled, incompetent, and rotten. But, hand to God (metaphorically), I was surprised to find out about torture with the goal of extracting false confessions to gin up rationale for war in Iraq.
As bad as I thought they were, I never thought they were that bad.
Of course, that, "they" is convenient. Because it wasn't Dick Cheney locking people in small boxes with insects. It wasn't Condeleeza Rice waterboarding someone 186 times. It wasn't George Bush forcing people to stay awake for eight days and then throwing them against walls, slapping them, humiliating them. It was America. We're all guilty as hell.
I can't see anyway to redeem ourselves of our toxic complicity in this rotten evil mess outside of prosecution. I don't know how you do it. Congressional hearings, special prosecutor, just shipping the motherfuckers off to The Hague? I do know this: we can't just walk away.
