It’s torture!
Republicans went on the offense with Nancy Pelosi’s flap over briefings on CIA interrogation techniques. Her explanation is certainly suspect, and it seems like she may not have acted in the optimal manner at the time to oppose torture as it was presented. The Republican attacks on her are justified, and instead of denying, distributing specific talking points to make her case, and shifting the blame to the CIA, going as far as calling them liars, Speaker Pelosi should simply apologize for missing the opportunity to oppose torture, relay her thoughts at the time surrounding the classified nature of the briefing, and refocus the debate on the need to investigate torture and prosecute those involved.
But why the sudden interest from Karl Rove and others? Rove wrote an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal and stated “Nancy Pelosi was an accomplice to ‘torture.’” I can’t quite tell, are the single quotes around the word “torture” supposed to suggest a level of sarcasm? Or is Rove serious in his accusation that Pelosi is an “accomplice to torture”?
I think Rove and the GOP’s plan is to connect Pelosi to “enhanced interrogation techniques” or torture so that if Democrats continue to press for prosecutions and strict limits on torture in the future, then Nancy Pelosi goes down with the Bush Administration. Sounds like a trap so Democrats can’t win either way. And given the Congressional Democrats’ devotion to their Speaker, the logic of the plan makes sense.
Hopefully we can keep the focus on the actual forces behind American torture, and skip the petty arguments over who-knew-what-when, or at least figure them out after we decide how high the torture authorization went with Bush and his team. More important, it sounds like Rove and the GOP are ready to sacrifice their “ideals” for political expediency. They seem ready to admit that “enhanced interrogation techniques” are torture, as soon as they can be sure Pelosi is at fault (in addition to themselves).
Republicans played a risky hand. If it works, we might slowly see torture discussions fade into the background. But if Democrats don’t back down, as they shouldn’t, torture-supporters lost credibility. The debate about “enhanced interrogation techniques” just ended. Seems like we all now agree that inflicting pain on an individual where the pain isn’t punishment but rather designed to coerce cooperation–whether by water-boarding, forced standing, or pulling fingernails–is torture, to the “t”.
Tags: CIA, CIA Liars, Classified Briefing, EITs, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, Karl Rove, Republicans, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Talking Points, Torture, WSJ
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