Me4- Yeah, sorry about bursting your bubble about the whole TV thing. In reality, the only real truth comes from magazines like “People” and “The National Enquirer.”

Cool-Thanks friend. Looks like the congress agrees with me on this one too! Good to hear from you again.

CoolAqua

Orikinla- I would suggest that by condoning and participating in the very acts we profess to despise, we are losing that part of our democracy that is worth fighting for, namely the value of freedom and rule of law.

If as you say, you can’t even accept any testimony of an enemy, how does torture make that testimony less false?

If the rules of detention should be determined by the gravity of their PROVEN crime, mustn’t it first BE proven? And if the evidence to convict is such that is gained through torture, how can we be sure it is true, therefore, how can they be convicted? Your logic does not follow.

Information gained through torture is no more accurate than that gained by other means. The only difference is that the tortured person will tell you want you want to hear whether it is true or not.

Nice to hear from you again.

Windspike- I agree that our presence, or maybe better- our bungled presence in Iraq has increased recruitment for the terrorists. And claims of torture do inflame their radical base even more.

And though 9-11 happened on Bush’s watch, I don’t hold him responsible for that act of terror. Maybe it could have been avoided, maybe not, but the faulty system was long in place before him. He just happened to be there at the time. His responses are what he should be judged by.

Jon- I don’t recall hearing that particular Osama quote before. At any rate, it is likely more accurate to say that 9-11 is a result of decades of American foreign policy that propped up violent dictators who would let us have access to their resources while they brutalized their people. That, and artificailly induced religious hatred.

Shea- This administration can’t remember what it says from one day to the next, and probably looks at archived factual statements as revisionist history. Fact is, once we start emulating the behavior of our enemies, we begin the slide towards our own brand of despotism, something less like freedom and democracy and more like Roman occupation.

We are better than this as a people. Let us find some politicians who really represent the average American.

Doc- Nice to hear from you again. And it’s never too often to remind us what we are losing each day or about the hypocrisy we have to endure from this administration.

MacD- One must wonder if we really are this stupid, or if they are. Which lies are becoming truth fastest?
Thanks for the comment.

Jon- If the war had been intelligently planned and prosecuted, there would be less internal conflict than there is now. Removing Saddam was a good thing, just done half-assed with no thought for the aftermath. Even as this administration finally confesses that its intelligence was faulty, they refuse to acknoledge that their application of reform and reconstruction is badly managed and only prolonging the situation.

Horace- Thanks for sharing your highly creative blog. Check it out folks, for something to take your mind off of the heated debate for a few minutes…

If you want a really good laugh, visit http://www.horacefinkle.blogspot.com - People these days just don’t get to laugh enough, and here’s my remedy!

Did 9/11 happen while W was installed in office or not? How can you counter that? Do you have a source for your OBL commentary?

Did you read today’s speech by W himself where he said the decision to go into iraq was based on falty intelligence and an over active imagination?

I like folks who suggest that there were other reasons for the Nine Eleven attacks and then offer no real evidence. I suggest that perhaps it was more than just W’s fault, but that the actual green light was given to the sleeper cels to come alive when and only when W stole the 2000 elections. Can I prove that? Nope. Can you prove your asssertion? Doubt it.

And to think, it is the anti-war critics that embolden the insurgents in Iraq.

The Bush administration is all about saying one thing and doing what they want to do anyway. They talk about being a “culture of life” but they kill 80,000 people in Iraq (30,000) civilians. They talk about being compassionate conservatives, but they cut funding for medicade and food stamps. But they make sure that they give tax breaks to the wealthy. They talk about caring about education, but they make it impossible to carry out the laws they passed. I could go on, but most people have heard these things over and over again…