AS is doing yoeman's work on the testimony about Bush's torture regime.
My 2-cents is simple: There is no such thing as a "post-9/11 world" or "9/11 changed everything".
Almost all that we have discovered is that the world is just about the same, except that maybe we need to account for throw-away mobile phones and a few police-tactics for rolling-up terror cells.
Apart from that, we've proved ("learned" would be too charitable) what all the textbooks have said, including the one written by George H. W. Bush, that terrorists are brought to Justice and that Justice requires the rule-of-law. All the talk about a "dark war" is not unimportant, but far, far more fringe than centerpiece.
Last, the hope that "Islamists must be made to understand that ..." (not unlike its counterpart, "the Palestinians must be made to understand that ...") is probably not a struggle that can be waged on the offensive, too much, apart from the aggressive and physical elimination of "sanctuaries" for certain non-state military action.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Torture in our times....
