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What did Pelosi know and so forth. Distraction 101
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Don’t look at the guy behind the curtain. .jpg)
Those of us of a certain age grew up with the wisdoms of the motion picture, The Wizard of Oz, and the admonition urged by the alleged Wizard not to look at or pay attention to the guy behind the curtain, a plain, regular person who, when he was accused of being a bad man, responded that he was only a bad wizard. The point was the often quoted question, “Are you going to believe me or your own lying eyes”. Last week, my Letter to the Editor of the St. Petersburg Times was published:
Among the things I simply do not understand are the claims and counterclaims as to whether or when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or other Democrats were aware that the Bush administration had authorized or directed waterboarding and other practices constituting torture.
Nearly everyone except the former vice president and his family acknowledges that torture was in fact used, that it was used after intelligence had been obtained through nontorture techniques and was used for political purposes not related to terrorists' threats.
Expanding the group of individuals who may have been aware of the practices and their illegality doesn't absolve those who directed that torture be utilized.
This seems to me so elementary that any expansion of this viewpoint would seem totally unnecessary. On the other hand, the Sunday talk shows reflect the view that people are being distracted. In the process, Republicans are faced with a dilemma: on the one hand, the torture policies instituted, authorized and directed by the Bush administration, were appropriate, necessary and instrumental in keeping America safe and free from terrorists’ attacks after September 11, 2001, and, on the other hand, Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi is to be condemned for not taking action quickly enough to stop the practice.
If this gives one a headache, it’s understandable; after all, that is its purpose. Just as the victim of a shell game on the street loses sight of the ball, so the GOP is being remarkably successful is distracting is from the basic issue.
Much of the media have gone along with placing the focus on what Mrs. Pelosi know and when did she know about “it”. What is the “it”? The imposition of admittedly illegal, likely ineffective and probably unnecessary waterboarding and other torture. The United States had in the past prosecuted enemy combatants for acts of identical torture against our troops; therefore, the illegal and unacceptably nature of the acts was not in doubt.
The Right continues its relentless characterization of the media as being driven by Left wing political views. But all too often just the opposite is true. In the case in point, much of the press has focused its attention on the President’s changing positions on whether to prosecute the officials of the previous administration who authorized and directed acts of torture. While condemnation of the acts and an assurance that it will not happen during an Obama administration are certainly welcome and a minimum of what should be done, there are good and valid arguments on both sides of future criminal prosecution. (I have wrestled with the issue and have vacillated between the choices.)
By all means, the press (and the opposition Party) ought to take Ms Pelosi to task if she is untruthful, if she is dishonest, if she errs. But at the same time, the media especially ought not to fall for the shell game. The debate on torture must be focused on those who authorized it as a government policy, knowing full well that it was illegal and immoral and likely worthless in the search for truth. To shift the entire inquiry to what did Nancy Pelosi know and when did she know it is wrong – and we must not allow us to be distracted.
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SLB has submitted her opening statement in which she takes issue with some of my views. To make matters clearer for the readers of these points of …
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