So, I keyed "torture" into a twitter search to see where the twitterverse was at, which is mostly anti-torture and pro-prosecution of the Bush era policy makers. But one fellow did post this Dennis Prager article titled Nine Questions the Left Needs to Answer About Torture. Pretty much his goal here is to take the moral high road by saying, "ka DUH, torture is bad, but The Left are still a bunch of big, stinky hypocrites and I'm going to out them as such, cunningly, with these nine questions."
Well, I'm not THE left, but I am, er, A left, so I thought I'd try and respond. Let's take the first one today.
Question One: Given how much you rightly hate torture, why did you oppose the removal of Saddam Hussein, whose prisons engaged in far more hideous tortures, on thousands of times more people, than America did -- all of whom, moreover, were individuals and families who either did nothing or simply opposed tyranny? One assumes, furthermore, that all those Iraqi innocents Saddam had put into shredding machines or whose tongues were cut out and other hideous tortures would have begged to be waterboarded.
Answer One: Leaving aside the obvious (we didn't invade Iraq because Saddam was a torturer), this question is a total non sequitur. We lefties abhor lots of things without thinking we ought to invade and then (incompetently) occupy countries who engage in them. And, while Saddam may have tortured more people than the CIA, call us crazy, but we lefties don't think Saddam gets to set the bar. We are not, despite your best efforts to paint us as such, moral relativists. Torture, in any capacity, in any amount, is wrong. And we will not stand for it to be done by our country in our name.
