Clear-headed analysis from Rich Lowry on NRO. Reading between the lines he once again makes the point that there is no connection between the two so-called "torture memos" and the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
But an independent panel lead by James Schlesinger concluded that "the pictured abuses were not part of authorized interrogations nor were they even directed at intelligence targets." Abu Ghraib ringleader Spc. Charles Graner abused prisoners as a guard here in the United States. Are we really to believe that his misconduct in Iraq was guided by what the Office of Legal Counsel might or might not have concluded in a heavily footnoted 50-page advisory legal memo?
UPDATE: More from Mark Goldblatt on American Spectator Online. Regarding the concept that we ought not "coerce" Al Qaeda prisoners so that they would respect and treat humanely our troops if captured, Goldblatt writes:
The problem is that no one we're now fighting cares about reciprocity. The laws and customs of war are meaningless to them. They target civilians, take hostages, behead prisoners. They're opportunistic killers, not soldiers. Justice, according to Aristotle, consists of proportionality, of treating equals equally and unequals unequally. It's unjust, therefore, to accord unlawful combatants the same rights of lawful combatants. To do so is to encourage lawful combatants to break the law.
It's always helpful to bring George Orwell into the discussion.
"Men can only be civilized," George Orwell wrote, "while other men, inevitably less civilized, are there to guard and feed them."
UPDATE: More well-reasoned thoughts on the matter from, of course, Power Line.
Comments