> Bush pouring water on terrorists' faces and making them stand in place for long periods is bad.
Are you deliberately trying to phrase torture to sound benign? Or have you not read about what went on? This is not an accurate description of the torture practices that were used, not the ones you were trying to describe, nor the ones you left out.
Yeah, torture is bad.
> Obama dropping drone missiles on picnics and weddings killing Americans and their whole families is OK.
I don't think so. It sounds like you don't either. I'm not sure if you are trying to accuse the NYT editorial board of hypocrisy, or the commenters in this thread, or someone else -- not entirely sure who you think has the opinions you are parodying. But for what it's worth, the NYT editorial board doesn't think it's okay either.
I had read those opinions by the Times and they mildly disapprove but their tone was much harsher for Bush. Who is hypocritical? Not only the Times, but the Senate Democrats who spent years investigating and released a huge report on Bush's so-called torture, but nothing about Obama's drone strikes, which kills Americans, and suspected terrorists and their families, along with anyone else with 100 feet.
And no, I don't think it's torture. I also think death is worse than any technique they used. If you asked all the people who were waterboarded if they preferred waterboarding or death, I am sure they would all vote for waterboarding.
I am truly frightened by the fact that you probably aren't alone in thinking that, for instance, shoving something into someone's rectum with 'excessive force' causing anal prolapse isn't torture. I would ask if you feel the same way if it's someone other than the American government doing it to Americans as you do when it's the American government doing it to Muslim people, but I don't really want to continue the conversation, it's sickening.
It is something that apparently happened, approved or not. Does that not trouble you, that such a thing could happen, by those charged with upholding our liberty and safety, and there is nothing done to make sure it never happens again? Do the survivors, or the families of those killed, deserve some kind of apology or compensation?
We could argue about the 'approved techniques', as actually implemented, constituting torture too (I think they do, and think if they were done to you you'd agree -- I think your opinion is based on confidence that they would NEVER be done to you because they are only done to 'bad people', and the goverment would never confuse you for a 'bad person' -- you're probably right, only because you're American and white; in fat there are _numerous_ cases of 'mistaken identity' among those who were kidnapped and tortured), but really, neither of us are going to win such an argument on the internet.
It's an attempt to transfer the world's collective disdain for the Bush Administration to Obama, by suggesting that Obama is the one guilty of crimes against humanity, while Bush and Cheney were guilty of, at best, minor pranks and hazing. And that Americans should remember this the next time we go to the polls, and vote the Red Team back in.
But I'll go ahead and say that I think torture by the authorities is worse than murder by the authorities, especially if you include all the knock-on effects of trying to justify it.
