Here in rabid Liberal blog land, we are obviously only interested in revenge on Republicans. We don't actually CARE about torture, you understand, or justice, or the fact that laws were broken. We don't care that our government committed the most heinous crime that humans can commit on an individual...torturing them to death. No, we are just out for vengeance and retribution upon the Evile Republicans. We hate them so much we will do anything to get them...
And the indisputable fact that they engaged in an organized, planned, infra-structured,
"legally" supported, researched, (though not well researched, because of the legendary Republican incompetence) well funded, widespread and continent spanning Policy of Torture has absolutely nothing to do with our Liberal bleating. A 'policy' of organized, approved torture that was carried out against, in some cases, people known to be innocent, and in over 100 cases, tortured them to death....has absolutely nothing to do with our, the Far Left DFH's, desire for investigations.
Investigations.
(Investigations, as the responsible grown up Republicans have often reminded us when speaking about such things as the Patriot Act and wireless wiretapping, that no one need fear....if they have nothing to hide.)
Mere investigations.
The fact that we claim that we Hard Left DFH'swish to pursue investigations to bring about justice and accountability, to expose torture, forever repudiate torture, and hold accountable the torturers and those who authorized torture and restore the Rule of Law is just ....an excuse.
An excuse to carry out a "partisan witch hunt." An excuse to slake our bloodthirsty (even though WE weren't the ones who tortured innocent people) desire to pick on and defame the poor, innocent, persecuted, power hungry Republicans in the former Administration. Republicans whose incompetence and stupidity extended so far as to lead them to wrongly and illegally invade an entire country. The wrong country. And then proceed to kill thousands upon thousands of people there. And ....torture them.
We are only looking for "retribution" against the responsible, grown up Republicans who "mistakenly" invaded Iraq after they let us get hit on 9/11. Even though there is evidence that the "mistaken" rationale for invasion included an unspoken desire for revenge, vengeance, or ...retribution. THEY lied us into invading a country and killing and torturing its people, people that had done nothing to us....
.
But WE are the irrational, bloodthirsty ones.
Because we want investigations.
Right.
.
Fine. Since I am rational, I recognize, and to some extent accept, that America has indeed become a crazed nation of irrational partisanship.
It was of course Newt's Republicans who used hyper-partisan propaganda and hate to take back Congress, divide the country, and eventually implement the insane impeachment of Clinton....but pointing that out is....you guessed it, just me being a partisan. Pointing partisan fingers. Playing the partisan 'blame game. Just like we irrational Lefties did after that little incident in New Orleans, tsk, tsk.
At least...that is what "some people say."
But the quest for justice for the multiple Bush Administration War Crimes is NOT based on partisanship. Really. Despite what "some people say." Some people who cannot comprehend that it is an honest response to what actually happened. And since they cannot comprehend the idea of accountability for the powerful, they have to ascribe other motives to us Socialist fascists. But the quest for justice for the multiple Bush Administration War Crimes is NOT based on partisanship, I swear.
It is based on the fact that the Bush Administration....
....committed War Crimes.
And no matter who committed War Crimes....War crimes, as we used to know before the hyper-partisan era came along....are wrong. Just. Plain. Wrong. A concept that seems to be tres gauche in the beltway and the halls of power.
We, as a nation used to know that. We used to prosecute people for War Crimes. We used to be the leader of the entire world when it came to Human Rights.
We aren't now. And yes, part of that is because of hyper-partisanship. On both sides. Because when a society is hyper-partisan, if you admit your side is wrong....you lose. Which has obviously become more important to "some people" than right and wrong.
After all, hyper-partisanship and the unhealthy over self-identification with sides and Party above all is one of the few things that could lead normal rational humans to actually bring themselves to rationalize and defend War Crimes.
The Bush Administration War Crimes are incredibly well documented. As many of us have been predicting for years, the more the press and the government investigate, the more documentation comes to light. Bush has admitted authorizing waterboarding, Cheney has admitted authorizing waterboarding. The other day Condi admitted being party to the criminal conspiracy to torture. The Senate Armed Services Report says that Rumsfeld authorized torture. There are thousands of pictures ....and video tapes...of people being tortured.
We are not pulling this stuff out of our hyper-partisan asses, folks.
Really.
They tortured people. And nothing you say or spin can change that. No matter what euphemisms you use.
There is proof.
That is what used to (before Fox News killed them) be known as a fact.
And pointing out that fact and insisting that something be done about it is not hyper-partisan. It is human, when torturing people to death is involved.
And to prove it....
I hereby call for the same kind of full and comprehensive investigations and, if warranted, prosecutions of the Democratic leaders...all four of them....that were briefed to some extent or another, on the Bush Torture Program.
Nancy Pelosi
Jane Harman
Jay Rockefeller
Tom Daschle Bob Graham.
Those were the four House and Senate leaders that made up the Democratic half of the Gang of Eight that were briefed.
And heck, I will even throw in Harry Reid, though his tenure most likely started too late to receive the briefings.
If these Democrats are implicated deeply enough to warrant it then yes, I call for them to be prosecuted. If they are guilty, I call for them to be jailed.
Right alongside George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Don Rumsfeld, David Addington, and Yoo, Bybee, and Bradbury.
And whoever else is shown through a rigorous but fair and thorough investigations of the vast, well defined, thoroughly spelled out, medically and psychiatrically assisted brutal, bloody, inhuman criminal conspiracy to dehumanize, humiliate, inflict pain and suffering upon and torture ....other human beings, that was the Bush Torture Program.
EVERYBODY associated with this ultimate human horror and crime should be investigated, no matter what letter is after their name.
And I say that even though I am a lifelong Democrat.
Really, I swear.
.
.
Update From the esteemed emptywheel in the comments:
Bob Graham
Not Daschle.
And yes, Reid's tenure started late enough that he wasn't briefed--bc they weren't briefing the full Gang of Eight--just the Four.
I did a summary of the reasons why Dems really AREN'T complicit here.
About Democratic Complicity: the Early Briefings on Torture
With a description of Jello Jay's 10-month quest to get the Admin to assess whether or not their torture complied with CAT:
The Gestation of Bradbury’s Torture Memos
Yes, they could have done more. But frankly, expecting Nancy Pelosi or Bob Graham to have stopped the torture when 1) it had already happened and 2) CIA didn't tell them it had already happened is basically imagining Pelosi can un-torture someone without even knowing about the torture in the first place.