Fire John Brennan [View all]

[H2O Man]

John Brennan’s press conference was extremely offensive. Rather than at least pretending that he felt bad about instituting torture, he instead allowed his self-righteousness to come through in an aggressive manner. This is a man who knows no shame, and who should definitely be incarcerated.

Watching Brennan’s performance, I was reminded of when, as part of my last job, I was part of our mental health clinic’s forensic team, and did pre-sentencing evaluations for the county court. This included making recommendations, based not only for the offense(s) in question, but also on the person’s ability to take responsibility for their actions.

Brennan refused to identify what was done in an accurate way -- torture -- and instead attempted to sanitize it by using “EIT” repeatedly. Rather than take responsibility for his role in this disgusting chapter in American history, he sought to divert the public’s focus by blaming others; more offensively, he attempted to identify himself with the honorable men and women who have sacrificed life and limb to protect our nation.

There is not, as far as I know, any organic defect that prevents Brennan from understanding the distinction between “right” and “wrong.” He displays no outward signs of an abnormality that prevented him from grasping the impact of torture upon another human being. Rather, it is obvious that he knew exactly what this program of torture was all about. In fact, he appeared to resent the fact that he could not claim that torturing people produced valuable intelligence.

It was apparent that John Brennan is convinced that the democrats in the Senate have betrayed him. He is convinced that the legally and ethically flawed “green light” that some in the Bush administration provided for torture excuses him from all responsibility. Even the tone of his voice suggested that he views himself as the true victim of the torture program.

A rational person might ask how a specimen such as John Brennan reached so high a position of power in our system of government? While no one could argue that he lacks in intelligence, his utter lack of a conscience should have disqualified him from consideration of such a position in any healthy society. Indeed, only in a malignant system could John Brennan be viewed as an asset.

I will call and write to the White House, and express my belief that President Obama should fir Brennan today.