A Little Something on the topic of Torture

[Joanne98]

I had lunch with my Dad the other day. I like having lunch with him because he gives me an insight as to what the “Joe Turnip” Republican conservative is talking about politically these days, and he’s able to maintain his cool even when I’m telling him things that he doesn’t want to hear. Well, most of the time he keeps his cool. It’s all part of a healthy dialog between differences of opinion! Face it, if you can’t have an intelligent and rational conversation with someone of your political-opposite - you’re probably the “crazy political” person that nobody wants to be around.

Calm, rational and intelligent political conversation is challenging! Keeping your cool is difficult!

Of course, my Dad repeats Republican “talking points”; Rush Limbaugh’s (ridiculous) ideas and whatever Fox News is currently pushing out on their noise-maker, which is helpful to know what the “average Joe Turnip” from their camp is thinking. It’s partly why I love Keith Olbermann so much: He’s running stories that clarifies the GOP/Fox Noise Talking Points and throws their views under the proverbial bus by explaining the history of the subject, the back-drop surrounding the subject with a wrap-up on why the GOP is wrong in every aspect of the subject.

At one point in time, between finishing our chips and salsa and our fish tacos arriving, Dad’s kinda stressing out on the topic of Republicans’ views towards this whole Turture thing - thanks to Team Obama. My Dad’s pretty ticked off: Obama smeared Bush and was enacting revenge by releasing these torture memos - blah blah blah. After years of these “political power-lunches”, it’s more like meditation with an organic “ohmmmmmmmmm” and holding it as long as necessary. You just let them scream - while you hum: “ohmmmmmmmm”

But then my Dad obliquely said this:

“And you know… This waterboarding was not torture! It wasn’t! Look, no soft-body tissue was damaged and they were not killed. In fact, they had a doctor standing by to make sure that the prisoner was safe! If no soft-body tissue damage occured, and there’s a doctor standing-by - then it wasn’t torture!!”

Easy point to argue?

Here’s me:

“Dad; Dr. Mengele was standing by while Jews were turtured in Germany. It was still torture! I highly doubt that since a doctor was on-hand while these people were waterboarding poses a credible smell-test.”

My Dad was NOT pleased with the analogy. But, that’s his problem, not mine. Chalk two gold stars for me.

Last Friday Olbermann discussed the issue of “water boarding” in a historical sense -

During the 1898 Spanish-American war: US soldiers were using a technique called “water cure” on POW’s in the Philippines and they were courts marshalled.
In 1968, the Washington Post published a photo of a US Troop waterboarding a North Vietnamese POW. Following an Army Investigation, that soldier was courts marshalled.
Huh?! Huh?! You see what I mean? I like Olbermann because he educates me instead of telling me what my opnion should be.

I repeated these points to my Dad, and by noting that torture via waterboarding isn’t something new!

It’s gone on a long time, and the information collected from torture is completely useless: Just ask John McCain!

Dad didn’t agree - He wanted to get technical by pointing back at the face that “soft tissue” of the body wasn’t harmed - so it doesn’t equate to the technicality of “torture”. (In other words - we didn’t cut, pierce or gouge skin, limbs or flesh. Since we didn’t cut off their ears, for example, this couldn’t be considered, techincally “torture”.) Again, he’s stuck on the issue of “soft-tissue damage” as if it’s something…anything…that prevents his beloved Republican President from being accused of War Crimes.

He lost the argument, again. Two more gold stars for me.

Me:

“Dad: You don’t get to the priviledge all-of-a-sudden to simply redefine what constitutes “torture” because it’s politically convenient! US Law, International Law, the UCMJ and the Geneva Convention has clearly defined what constitutes “torture”, and the subject of “soft-tissue damage” isn’t included! If you want to re-define what constitutes “torture”, based on a technicalities - you’re going to have a lot more work ahead of you than simply dismissing the topic because it’s politically convenient!”

Later that night, Keith Olbermann had Maj Gen John Batiste on his show and he had a rather lengthy conversation on the subject of Torture. Batiste noted that we should examine the Geneva Convention’s “Common Article 3″ and look at the photos of Abu Ghraib to decide for ourselves about the topic of Torture.

Continued>>>
http://fruitfly.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/a-little-something-on-the-topic-of-torture/