Republicans don’t understand how torture and abuse radicalizes our enemies. (UPDATED)
May 26, 2009

 
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Sometimes I just have to ask: “Do they REALLY not understand something so simple or are they being deliberately obtuse just to gin up support from their base?” Such was my thinking last week as former Vice President Dick Cheney went on his “Please don’t prosecute me” Tour to accuse President Obama of making the country “less safe” than we were under the previous Administration that failed to prevent the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil to take place on their watch.

President Obama gave an inspiring speech last Thursday explaining the necessity of closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp… a legal black-hole where detainees were tortured… ASAP as it only serves as a recruiting tool for our enemies. Minutes later, former VP Cheney gave a “rebuttal” speech criticizing President Obama for “caring more about terrorists” than “the security of the American people”. Part of the former VP’s defense was that “terrorism existed long before Gitmo” and therefore, is not responsible for prolonging the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

(Video updated with normalized audio and clips of Petraeus and Powell added.)
 


 

(UPDATE: See the interview with Maj. Alexander that Durbin refers to in the above video: here.)

(UPDATE 2: Full video of CentCom commander and Republican hero General David Petraeus arguing in favor or closing Gitmo and condemning torture available at Crooks & Liars.)

I would like to point out at this point that President Obama is not doing anything he didn’t already tell us he was going to do when he began his campaign for President in early 2007. Now, Cheney is going around saying President Obama’s policies are making us “less safe”. Well then, why didn’t Cheney feel the need to run for President if he thought Obama would endanger the country? Why? Because he knew he’d get squashed like a bug in an election that would of made the ’84 Reagan/Mondale race look close (49 to 1+DC). And now that the election is over, Cheney is running around accusing a President (who had been in office a mere 121 days at the time of his speech last Thursday) of endangering the country.

Dick Cheney is a coward. Just as he went to extreme lengths to avoid serving in Vietnam, he likewise didn’t run for President despite (supposedly) having “serious concern” that Democratic policies would endanger our National Security, because he knew he’d lose in a humiliating landslide.

No, the only person Dick Cheney is worried about is Dick Cheney. He calls it “enhanced interrogation” instead of “torture”, because torture is a crime. He (and his daughter Liz) even try to convince us “waterboarding”… a 500-year old torture technique and war-crime the U.S. itself has executed soldiers for using on American POW’s after WWII… “is not torture”. Because the moment he does, he admits to a war-crime that he can and should be prosecuted for. He’s running scared, and both he and the GOP know it.

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May 26, 2009 · Admin Mugsy · No Comments - Add
Posted in: Politics, Rants

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