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I’ll let Major General Paul D. Eaton speak for himself on Obama, torture, and the Geneva Conventions:
[Obama is] absolutely consistent, ever since I’ve seen this man show up on tv for the first time. He is going to turn this torture thing around. He is going to get the United States back into the international community in a proper fashion – adhere to the Geneva Conventions, get the ICRC involved.
He has never deviated from that. But when Human Rights first gathered all these retired generals, it was an effort to educate America, educate the United States, that torture is bad. It’s bad for the army, it’s bad for America, it’s bad for our standing in the world.
[snip]
[Question about including Gen. Fred Haynes and torture in the inaugural speech]
General Haynes is a national hero. What he went through in WWII was the clearest example of treat your prisoners right – high payoff. And to get the wording in the inaugural speech would be a very quick, very high payoff repudiation of past practice. ‘I am President Obama and this is what I stand for – these are my values, these are America’s values’
Enhanced interrogation techniques – inappropriate and ineffective.
We have one standard – no torture period. No exceptions. Otherwise you dilute the standard, you lower the standard that creates a real problem in understanding in what the president wants, all the way down to the youngest private.
[snip]
How did we get here? We had one of the retired generals liken it to a Class A or serious accident investigation, where you’re not looking for culpability, you’re looking for how did this accident happen, how did this unfold? And when we know that path, we’ll be better prepared to deal with future wars and future challenges.
The contrast between this and what passed for standards on torture under the Bush Administration just makes you want to cry. But we’re not there yet. Keep the pressure on.
2 Comments
To me, there is no more important issue to address internationally except for the economic crisis. The nations of the world — not just the West — must be able to have faith in one another again, faith that others will respect the rule of international law, beginning with Geneva and the UN Convention.
In many places that faith has been lost over these last awful eight years. Everyone’s society has been corroded to some degree by fear and paranoia.
And yes, we need an accounting for what has already happened. Looking forward is all very well, I guess, but we need a full analysis of what happened and why, and me, I also want to know who did it. I want names on the record, if only to make sure that the perps never have public influence again.
Thanks very much for this, egregious.
I feel really dirty when I think of all the crimes our country has committed over the last eight years right in front of our noses.
It can’t never be erased, but it can stop.
thanks for the post, eg.