http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/cheney_on_torture_misinformation_and_straw_men.php?ref=fpaCheney On Torture: Misinformation And Straw Men
big snip//
{T}o call this a program of torture is to libel the dedicated professionals who have saved American lives, and to cast terrorists and murderers as innocent victims.
Again, it's unclear who's suggesting that people who are waterboarded are necessarily "innocent." This is the strawiest of straw men.
And:
Another term out there that slipped into the discussion is the notion that American interrogation practices were a "recruitment tool" for the enemy. On this theory, by the tough questioning of killers, we have supposedly fallen short of our own values. This recruitment-tool theory has become something of a mantra lately, including from the President himself. And after a familiar fashion, it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do. It's another version of that same old refrain from the Left, "We brought it on ourselves."
It is much closer to the truth that terrorists hate this country precisely because of the values we profess and seek to live by, not by some alleged failure to do so. Nor are terrorists or those who see them as victims exactly the best judges of America's moral standards, one way or the other.
This is maybe the most harmful notion of all. That Gitmo has been a recruitment tool for terrorists is a documented fact, not an argument that we deserved to be attacked. Trying to prevent another attack requires looking at the world as it is, which means accepting that if we can take steps to remove a propaganda tool from terrorist recruiters, it makes sense to do so. This should not be difficult to understand.
More soon....
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