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On 9/11, the Miami Herald published an OpEd titled: Fear was No Excuse To Condone Torture, and a link to this OpEd was posted in an EW thread. It deserves much wider readership, and so in that spirit I’ve highlighted the beginning of it here:
In the fear that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Americans were told that defeating Al Qaeda would require us to “take off the gloves.” As a former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and a retired commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command, we knew that was a recipe for disaster.
But we never imagined that we would feel duty-bound to publicly denounce a vice president of the United States, a man who has served our country for many years. In light of the irresponsible statements recently made by former Vice President Dick Cheney, however, we feel we must repudiate his dangerous ideas — and his scare tactics.
The authors of this OpEd are:
Charles C. Krulak was commandant of the Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999. Joseph P. Hoar was commander in chief of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994.
Hat tips to EW commenters PJRourke and JKat.
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Just a quick note that DavidDanzig’s Diary on this same topic is not showing up as I read the Diary listings, so apparently I’ve inadvertantly duplicated this topic.
However, given the number of diaries, posts, and comments on the general topic of how torture is damaging America’s ability to prevail, I’ll leave this post up for the present and simply alert potential readers to the fact that there is another diary that also links to this OpEd.
Here’s hoping the NYT and other large publishers reprint this OpEd for those who don’t read online.
Thanks, ROTL. That was a very good OpEd. I liked this part:
I just hope there’s a bit of our honor left to protect.
Cheney’s BULLY pulpit is extended by a corporate media that has no issues with disinformation and immorality. Citizenry gives Cheney props for celebrity and seems to lack capacity for conscience and minimal awareness themselves.
Glad to hear the assumed “colluders” in his surreal, extremely self-serving and passionate lies are popping up speaking truth to power, wanting to be a part of the solution, not problem. One person at a time, apparently, in what Rachel Maddow calls “this ethical freakshow of a universe.”