Torture Trials? By All Means, Let’s Have Them!

I was all set this morning to sit down and write a longish essay on the alleged torture memos, the left’s salivation over potential “truth commissions”, and why, after spending a couple days reading news reports and commentary on the subjects, I think we should have those hearings.

But now I can’t because Noam Emerie has written pretty much the essay I had intended to write.

Some Democrats, from the White House on down, are pushing the idea of a “truth commission,” à la South Africa, to deal with the “harsh measures” used by the Bush administration in interrogating al Qaeda detainees. Good. Let’s have lots of truthtelling. Please bring it on.

Let’s tell the truth about Bush’s conduct of the war on terror, which is that it’s been a success. His ultimate legacy hasn’t been written–Iraq is improved, but not out of danger–but the one thing that can be said without reservation is that the country was kept safe. He delivered on the main charge of his office in time of emergency, in a crisis without guidelines or precedent. Attacks took place in Spain, and in London, in Indonesia and India, but not on American soil, which was the obvious target of choice. Bush couldn’t say this before he left office, for obvious reasons, and after he left, attention switched to the new president. This little fact dropped down the memory hole, but with all this discussion, it will rise to the surface. Let the hearings begin!

Also dropped down the memory hole–along with the names of all the Democrats who thought Saddam was a menace who cried out for removal–is what the ambience was like in late 2001 and 2002, when fears of anthrax and suitcase bombs ran rampant, and people on all sides tried to seem tough. Let’s tell the truth about all the liberals who went on record supporting real torture, not to mention the Democrats in Congress, when it was cool to want to seem tough on our enemies, who couldn’t be too warlike. Then war and tough measures stopped being cool, and “world opinion” became more important. Nothing like statements under oath to revive ancient memories! And rewind the tapes.

Yes, by all means let’s have those trials. Let’s get everyone – Republican and Democrat – under oath and on the hot seat. See, we’ve spent eight years getting all the facts about Republican involvement in our enhanced interrogation techniques into the public eye. But there is much we do not know about Democratic complicity and, indeed, eagerness to do exactly what the Bush administration did and more.

If nothing else, the hearings would help restore the confidence of a badly-demoralized CIA, which has been told in no uncertain terms, that this administration has no interest at all in protecting them if doing so will cost the President a point in the public opinion polls.

The hearings will also finally allow us an informed discussion about torture. We will finally be able to see for ourselves exactly what was and was not considered torture, from a legal standpoint (the only standpoint, IMO, that actually matters).

Mostly, though, the hearings will put the Democrats in Congress who have spent seven years bloviating about their own moral purity and nigh-sainthood on the record as a bunch of nasty little hypocrites whose real concern is for their own job security and not your safety.

I’d love to see that, myself.

Other Posts of Interest:

• The Coming Democratic Show Trials
• If You’re Going To Scold Me for Being a Fascist Torture-Loving Beast, Get Your History Right, Okay?
• The Truth About “Torture”

Tags: Democrats, Fighting the Islamists

Category: Our New Democratic Overlords, The Long War Here At Home