Waterboarding is torture. Period. Does any sentient person doubt it? Well, our soon-to-be Attorney General has doubts. So does another general. It seems that Army General Russell Honore can't decide whether waterboarding is torture. And he really doesn't care, because he thinks our soldiers need to use it whether or not it is torture. As Honore told 900 Georgia middle schoolers, "the general public shouldn't be so quick to condemn the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique".
More indocrination and GOP talking points from our active duty military leaders below the fold----
Acoording to today's Atlanta Journal Constitution, Honore addressed a group of middle school children yesterday in Tyrone, Georgia. Why the topic of waterboarding is presumed an appropriate one for kids, I have no idea. Rest assured that if the topic had been Harry Potter or the fun of Halloween, there would have been faux outrage from the ultra self-righteous Georgia bible thumpers. But promoting torture of Arabs? No prob.
Honore, like Mukasey, opts for the ignorance defense in his approval of waterboarding:
"I don't know much about it, but I know we're dealing with terrorists who do some very awful things to people.
Why the heck should we expect a 3-star general to find out just what this mysterious waterboarding really is? He can't know EVERYTHING. Right? But he does "know" that its safe not deadly not intentionally lethal.
"I know enough about [waterboarding] that the intent is not to kill anybody.
The intent is not to kill? But if it happens? Well, Honore tells us its no biggie. Cause we only torture harshly interrogate really bad people who kill for fun.
We know that terrorists that we deal with, they have no law that they abide by. They have no code, they kill indiscriminately, like they did on 9/11."
Nice Rudy-esque flourish there at the end, Russ.
Sounding more Rudy-like at every turn, Honore then expounds with the "24" defense.
"If we picked up a prisoner that could tell us where the next 9/11 plot was, we could sit there and treat him nice, and that may not work," he said. "We could sit there and give him water and we could be politically correct.
"But if we have to use sources and methods that get information that not only save American lives, but save other people's lives or could prevent a major catastrophe from happening, I think the American people can decide [whether to allow waterboarding]."
We can abide by the Rule of Law and be crushed by evil-doers or we can torture and WIN! U-S-A, U-S-A. Take that you America-hating hippy liberals. Also, when Honore says "the American people", he actually means George Bush. Or himself. Because his job, like W's, is to protect us from all those bad people.
"As long as we're responsible for hunting those SOBs down, finding them and preventing them from killing our sons and daughters," Honore said, "I think we've got an obligation to do what the hell we've got to do to make sure we get the mission done."
He's obliged to torture, kids. Its for your own good. And if we get bad intel from torture, as EVERY intelligence study shows? Ah, well. We had to do something.
And a BREAKING NEWS Shocker-
The 37-year Army veteran also hinted at a possible future run for political office.
Although he does not say what party. Hmmmm.