Anonymous Liberal takes on Cheney’s speech about Gitmo and torture.
Cheney: “Another term out there that slipped into the discussion is the notion that American interrogation practices were a “recruitment tool” for the enemy. On this theory, by the tough questioning of killers, we have supposedly fallen short of our own values. This recruitment-tool theory has become something of a mantra lately, including from the President himself. And after a familiar fashion, it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do. It’s another version of that same old refrain from the Left, ‘We brought it on ourselves.’”
A.L.: Of course, earlier in the speech, Cheney said that Obama’s decision to withhold publication of prisoner abuse photos was the right decision, implicitly because releasing them would turn them into a “recruitment tool” for terrorists. Indeed, virtually every Republican has been explicitly making this argument with respect to those photos. So apparently photos of abuse can be a recruitment tool, but it’s ridiculous to suggest that actually abusing people might have a similar effect.
-MN
