Supreme Court rejects hearing on military detention case

[struggle4progress]

24. Well, large numbers of DUers understood a decade ago that the AUMF meant war within a few weeks,

that the result would be a quagmire, and that the cost in blood and treasure would be unconscionably high. DUers wrote LTTEs, contacted Congress, marched, and otherwise did whatever they could to stop the damn thing -- and we failed to do so. DUers tracked the slaughter as it occurred and tried to refute the Iraq Body Count lowball estimates. Some of us were writing Congress complaining about Bush administration torture long before the Abu Ghraib story broke

So I think you and I agree on all that. The remaining question is, What to do next? And I say we're in for a long-term fight, and we can't win unless we force ourselves to get our facts right and analyze them accurately

Thirty years ago, I was willing to make the argument you make -- the day will come when American citizens will be subject to the same disregard for human rights we are engaging in now -- when I was talking to folk on the street about Reagan's foreign policy. It might in some ways be a good argument, but it never worked for me when I used it, and I think one reason it never worked is because it's muddy -- we should oppose human rights violations on moral grounds, and those who don't find the moral argument persuasive won't find It could happen to you too! persuasive either, because they figure they can continue to win forever by repeatedly doubling their brutality