John Nichols at The Nation writes—Bernie Sanders Does Not Need to Apologize for Opposing Wars: He was absolutely right to oppose the Vietnam War and the Iraq War, and he is right to now oppose war with Iran:
After Bernie Sanders appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press last Sunday, the program’s Twitter account announced that “Bernie Sanders said he won’t apologize for supporting anti-Vietnam War efforts and voting against the war in Iraq.”
Good. Because Sanders should never apologize for the anti-war stances he took in the past, just as he should never apologize for the anti-war stances he is taking today as a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.
He was right to oppose the Vietnam War.
He was right to oppose the Iraq War.
He is right to now oppose the maneuvers that might lead to war with Iran.
Sanders used his Meet the Press appearance to present himself as a candidate whose inclination is to prevent rather than initiate wars. That does not make Sanders a pacifist; he has not opposed every call to arms. But he has generally been on the side of diplomacy as opposed to armed conflict. And his willingness to defend an anti-war stance on a Sunday-morning talk show was a refreshing rejoinder to the casually militaristic approach that characterizes so many media discussions of foreign policy. […]
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On this date at Daily Kos in 2009—Torture: This shouldn't need to be said:
Let's put this straight right off the bat: favoring the use of torture is not a political position, it's a mental illness.
Any further discussion of torture should be unnecessary. However, since our our national media seems to be enthusiastically pimping depravity as a governing principle, we might as well point out that the guys that have been there, done that, seen the elephant show and lived to come home? They say it doesn't work, isn't worth it, and they want nothing to do with it.
If you need further evidence, check out Mike Ritz, a former SERE instructor who worked with our servicemen and women to prepare them for harsh interrogations torture, and who went on to found his own private "stress laboratory" where he could "use just about any technique" he had read about to "see what kind of results he could get." Tony Lagouranis, a former Army interrogator who questioned prisoners in several locations, including Abu Ghraib. In other words, these are two people who have tortured other people, neither of them is shy about that fact, and they are willing to talk about that experience. Both men appeared on NPR's Tell Me More (audio link). The guys who have really done this stuff to actual human beings do not exactly back up the words of American's biggest Dick.
First off, they discussed the difference between what service people in the intelligence field had been trained to do, and what they were then asked to do by the Bush administration.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: The i-word chatter continues. Greg Dworkin rounds up the stories & polls. Armando calls an audible & discusses courts dunking on Trump... so far. Yet another Trump “banker” gets his Midas touch (of death), while another Manafort banker gets busted.
