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Torture and Cowardice, Pt.2

JMM hits it out of the park with this piece. Being bold means taking responsibility for being bold. As I’ve argued before, I think the answer to the ticking time bomb rationale for torture is this: that in the extremely unlikely circumstance that government officials ever found themselves in that position of having a ticking time bomb ticking away, they might have to make the decision to break the law. Not fudge it or keep their actions hidden, but take the decision on their own responsibility that it was the best thing to do in the situation — despite it…

Nowot?

Now what? We got Saddam, what’s next? Do we put him on trial? All of sudden his connections with Rumsfeld and Cheney get highlighted. Of course everything is in the public domain, just most news outlets have no interest in negative reporting on their associates. [Yes I do believe the fourth estate is dying.] But you can’t keep such a high-profile character in hiding forever. You could try him in Iraq, instead of in an international court designed to deal with international criminals, to make it sound as though there is a functioning judiciary in the country and to emphasize…