Bush's top general quashed torture dissent »
Posted by: Wil 2 months, 1 week ago237 Comments Report this Story
The former Air Force general and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers, helped quash dissent from across the U.S. military as the Bush administration first set up a brutal interrogation regime for terrorism suspects, according to newly public documents and testimony from an ongoing Senate probe.
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sir_samurai2 months, 1 week ago
Sounds like this was just about the way Hitler pulled it off; A "chairman", top ranking SS or Gestapo officer, or more, helping to "quash dissent from across the [Nazi] military" (to say "in this case" its OK to round-up and torture) and on down through the brown-shirts of his brain-washed Reich-wing supporters to the rest of the German population, and of course, fueled by FEAR mongering!
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MajJohn2 months, 1 week ago
If you are intellectually honest you'd have to admit in all the similarities there are vast differences. These prisoners were not starved and forced to labor, have their fillings removed and their skin made into lampshades.
What I'm saying is that there are different degrees in being wrong and your generalization is off the mark.
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sir_samurai2 months, 1 week ago
But of course, the generalizations are obviously exaggerated, but the realism of the analogy this renders is undeniable.
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david_nwpa2 months, 1 week ago
MajJohn, not sure about this, but it seems the distinction you are making is between political prisoners, Jews, Gypsies, etc. in Nazi Germany and POWs. I have no doubt that POWs suffered grave injustices in the camps during the war, but many survived the ordeal. As for the rest of your comments, I have to agree with you. The generalizations do not quite fit.
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tkyrchncs2 months, 1 week ago
I have had trouble believing that JAG officers supported these illegal and inhumane policies, and now we see they did not, but official blame will not go even as high as Myers. I am equally surprised that no soldiers have come to light who refused to carry out these tortures.
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sir_samurai2 months, 1 week ago
That is surprizing. But also surprizing are the high numbers of enlisted people that, while not talking in detail, are openly critical, protesting, deserting and committing suicide, by the thousands.
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DropkickaLib2 months, 1 week ago
Actually, 108 committed suicide during 2007, which was the highest year yet. While it's a serious problem, it doesn't add up to thousands.
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MajJohn2 months, 1 week ago
There is no doubt that Rumsfield created an atmosphere which allowed harsh interrogation techniques. His goal?? In his mind he was fighting the terrorists on their own ground. General instructions were to use derogation, fear and humiliation to gain intelligence, the troops in the field dreamed up on their own, as they tried to outdo each other, the nudity, doggie tricks, etc. This explains why they did not come forward. They would have implicated themselves. So, Rummy did not sign off on a manual which said to call the prisoners homos, but he encouraged humiliation as an interrogation technique. And admittedly, some things were over the line. Good information and another example where this administration was ill prepared to fight this type of war. From what I've read, with Rummy gone, we've now gone to the other extreme and are treating the prisoners with kid gloves. We still don't know what we're doing.
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MajJohn1 month, 3 weeks ago
I really took it in the chops with my maverick description. I agree w/ Meso that the right wing is holding their noses exactly for that reason. They don't want someone who is willing to cross party lines and work with the other side of the isle. They are demigods who want strict adherence to an extreme philosophy much like the left.
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