Why Shouldn’t We Be “Pro-Choice” on Interrogation Techniques? – This “Torture” Concern Just the Latest Democrat Excuse to Hammer Bush & Republicans

Some Democrats continue to wail about alleged “torture” by the CIA under the Bush Administration, treatment consisting of supposedly “harsh” interrogation techniques on captured Islamist terrorists that many current and former intelligence officials say resulted in valuable information that helped foil planned terrorist attacks. Never mind that many, and probably most, do not consider waterboarding and rough treatment to be harsh enough to constitute torture, and never mind that plenty of liberal politicians, we are now finding out, consented to such techniques (and indeed, may have worried that the CIA wasn’t “doing enough” to gather information).

Perhaps we can all agree to be “pro-choice” and allow each individual interrogator to be guided by his or her individual conscience as to when interrogation techniques cross the line and become “torture.”

I don’t think this uproar is so much about possible torture as it is another Democrat avenue of attack at George Bush in particular and Republicans in general. Here’s a parallel. Critics lashed out at Bush for years about the wars in Iraq and, to a lesser extent, in Afghanistan (at times justified). But now that Obama is keeping troops in Iraq in furtherance of the Bush policy and has actually directed and implemented a troop surge in Afghanistan (little reported on by the liberal media), where are all the Democrat anti-war critics and protesters? Where are all the screaming headlines in the liberal media? They’re gone. So how much of the vehemence was really anti-war and how much was in fact simply anti-Bush? Now the very same question can be asked of this “torture” controversy.

Ann Coulter always uses her brilliant, biting wit to great effect, and her just published weekly column does not disappoint. On this topic of “torture,” drawing from recently released Bush Justice Department memos, she writes (link; link):

…. Finally, the most savage interrogation technique at Guantanamo was "waterboarding" …. Thousands of our troops are waterboarded every year as part of their training, but not until it was done to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- mastermind of the 9/11 attack on America -- were liberal consciences shocked…. As non-uniformed combatants, all of the detainees at Guantanamo could have been summarily shot on the battlefield under the Laws of War. Instead, we gave them comfy chairs, free lawyers, better food than is served in Afghani caves, prayer rugs, recreational activities and top-flight medical care -- including one terrorist who was released, whereupon he rejoined the jihad against America, after being fitted for an expensive artificial leg at Guantanamo, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

Only three terrorists -- who could have been shot -- were waterboarded. This is not nearly as bad as "snowboarding," which is known to cause massive buttocks pain and results in approximately 10 deaths per year.

Normal human beings -- especially those who grew up with my older brother, Jimmy -- can't read the interrogation memos without laughing. At Al-Jazeera, they don't believe these interrogation memos are for real. Muslims look at them and say: THIS IS ALL THEY'RE DOING? We do that for practice. We do that to our friends.

John M Greco