Worst Case Scenario

[LC EFA]

Wee Willie Washout Speaks out his ass..

WilliamPitt  (1000+ posts)  Tue Jul-21-09 09:48 PM
Original message
Worst Case Scenario

[Photo Redacted]

This screen grab from a video shows Private Bowe R. Bergdahl, who is being held captive by Taliban militants. (Photo: AFP / Getty Images)

Worst Case Scenario
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Columnist

Tuesday 21 July 2009

The coward wretch whose hand and heart
Can bear to torture aught below,
Is ever first to quail and start
From the slightest pain or equal foe.

- Bertrand Russell

The torture debate in America got real three weeks ago.

Oh, the debate has been around for years now, of course, ever since the photos of what happened in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to light. Men covered in feces, bent double and lashed to bedframes, their faith humiliated by the menstrual blood smeared on their faces, their bodies savaged by dogs, and worse, reports of the rape of women and children.

Yes, the torture debate has been around for a while now, recently revisited by President Obama, who condemned and discontinued the practice, and by enablers of torture like Dick Cheney and John Yoo, who have labored mightily to defend it. It's been quite the hot topic among the chattering classes of American political discourse, a dialogue in three parts: one group condemning the practice, another group championing it, and a third group - the media professionals - taking no position and trying not to offend anyone, so they can get the big names back on the set for the Sunday shows.

Three weeks ago, however, the whole nature of the torture debate changed irrevocably when an American soldier from Idaho named Bowe Bergdahl somehow fell into the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan. They have him now, and God help him, because it was the United States government under the administration of George W. Bush that set the terms for how anyone captured can and should be treated.

If the Taliban decide Bergdahl has information they want, they can waterboard him until he talks. They can compress his body and cover him with insects, they can rob him of sleep and deny him food, they can beat him and slather his body with his own waste, they can shove sticks into his rectum, they can rape him, and they can murder him. They can hand him over to representatives of another government and have him whisked away to some far-flung dungeon where "enhanced interrogation" has an even darker and more savage definition. For sure, they can deny him due process of any kind and never, ever, ever, ever let him go home again.

They could do this whether or not the United States had engaged in similar practices, but because we did these things, they can do these things and still claim the moral high ground. Why not? It was the United States government under the administration of George W. Bush who plowed that high ground into the gutter. Everyone stands the same height when they're face-down in the sewer.

One thing the Taliban apparently cannot do, however, is videotape their prisoner. Several days ago, a tape of Bergdahl, with his head shaved, pleading to be sent home to his parents, was released by his captors. "I am scared," said Bergdahl in the video. "I'm scared I won't be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner. I have my girlfriend who is hoping to marry. I have my grandma and grandpas. I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America. And I miss them every day that I'm gone. I miss them and I'm afraid that I might never see them again and that I'll never be able to tell them that I love them again. I'll never be able to hug them."

The US government reacted swiftly to the video of Bergdahl. "We condemn the use of this video and the public humiliation of prisoners," said US military spokesman Col. Greg Julian. "It is against international law. We are doing everything we can to return this soldier to safety."

How hard it must have been for the US military to release a statement like that without feeling sick at heart and scared to death. The terrible irony and hypocrisy of the statement they released about the Bergdahl video must have been searing; we have set the table in such a way that torture is a positive action that saves lives, but videotapes are right out? No, that doesn't scan, and we know it, and the Taliban know it, and dollars to donuts Bergdahl knows it, too. Is he waiting in terror for the torture to begin? Has it already started?

The torture debate in America got real three weeks ago, and every American so-called Christian who has defended the practice can appreciate the lesson: we reap what we sow.

Pray Bowe Bergdahl doesn't reap it for us.

Link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6119170

Pitt seems to think that a bunch of savages who consider the murder of civilians to be a "good thing" , and that they played by the  rules right up until some waterboarding.

How dense can one possibly be ?

WilliamPitt  (1000+ posts)  Tue Jul-21-09 10:10 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. So
   
you're saying it'll be my fault if the Taliban figure out they can torture this guy?

Really?

No.

Don't buy into the silence.

My 2 cents.

"if the Taliban figure out they can torture this guy" - IF ? IF ?....

Seriously ?
 

undeterred  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Tue Jul-21-09 10:18 PM
Response to Reply #8
13. Clearly its a defensive move on their part.   Updated at 8:02 PM

You're an even bigger idiot than Pitt.

tavalon  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Wed Jul-22-09 07:27 AM
Response to Reply #7
24. Hmmm, the taliban would be doing us a favor if they got rid of the right wingers
   
Support the Troops? Only if convenient!

No Comment.

Name removed  (0 posts) Wed Jul-22-09 06:33 AM
Response to Original message
19. Deleted message
   
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Dissent is patriotic.

[JohnnyReb]

Muslims have been capturing people, selling them, torturing them, cutting off hands a feet, heads and otherwise being assholes for 1400+ years. Were they civilized for a few seconds or something and I missed it?

[franksolich]

Were they civilized for a few seconds or something and I missed it?

Apparently, and me, too, sir.

[mamacags]

I couldn't even scream loud enough to tell Pitt to GO F*CK HIMSELF.  Picture a meteor hitting Earth with the words WILLIAM PITT GO F*CK YOURSELF etched into the side in 200 foot tall letters.  That is how big my GO F*CK YOURSELF is to Will Pitt and all of the other parasitic ass lice at DU.

[thundley4]

I couldn't even scream loud enough to tell Pitt to GO F*CK HIMSELF.  Picture a meteor hitting Earth with the words WILLIAM PITT GO F*CK YOURSELF etched into the side in 200 foot tall letters.  That is how big my GO F*CK YOURSELF is to Will Pitt and all of the other parasitic ass lice at DU.

I kind of get the impression that you don't like the inhabitants of the Island. :innocent:

[BadCat]

I couldn't even scream loud enough to tell Pitt to GO F*CK HIMSELF.  Picture a meteor hitting Earth with the words WILLIAM PITT GO F*CK YOURSELF etched into the side in 200 foot tall letters.  That is how big my GO F*CK YOURSELF is to Will Pitt and all of the other parasitic ass lice at DU.

These people make me HOPE for a revolution in this country.

[franksolich]

I kind of get the impression that you don't like the inhabitants of the Island. :innocent:

Oh, mama, whose love for humanity and animals is too much for her body to contain, is just being honest.  One has to be pretty abomindable, to be loathed by mama.

[BlueStateSaint]

I'm pretty sure that, if an opportunity to waterboard the Pittstain ever presented itself, we'd probably kill each other over the opprotunity to pour the water on the towel over his head . . .

[Duke Nukum]

I not only question the Pittster's patriotism, I question his humanity.

[miskie]

I really don't hate Pittiful.. Probably because he doesn't matter enough to waste the energy on. As long as he doesn't sink to the level of IanDB1, I'll continue to put him in the 'couldn't be bothered' column

[franksolich]

I really don't hate Pittiful.. Probably because he doesn't matter enough to waste the energy on. As long as he doesn't sink to the level of IanDB1, I'll continue to put him in the 'couldn't be bothered' column

The Bostonian Drunkard is an idiot, a spoiled rich flabby kid, and he stinks, but the Bostonian Drunkard would have to descend some miles to sink to the same level as the skumbag primitive.

[USA4ME]

...they can beat him and slather his body with his own waste, they can shove sticks into his rectum, they can rape him, and they can murder him.

He loses any hope he had for an argument there.  No evidence US soldiers were ordered to do these things to prisoners.

... but because we did these things, they can do these things and still claim the moral high ground. Why not?

The military knows they can be waterboarded and have various interrogation techniques used on them (not the one's you falsely believed were approved by the US military), so that's not really news.

This is where foolish libs like Willy get into moral equavalency and completely miss the boat.  The Taliban shielded al-Qaeda who attacked us, not the other way around.  They lost any claim they might have ever hoped to have as soon as they permitted themselves to coddle OBL and his gang of thugs.  So they can try and claim moral high ground all they want, but it's something they lost a long time ago.  No comparison.

.

[Airwolf]

I'm pretty sure that, if an opportunity to waterboard the Pittstain ever presented itself, we'd probably kill each other over the opprotunity to pour the water on the towel over his head . . .

Make it a pay per view and your on.

[The Village Idiot]

So he is again an WithOut Truth columnist who probably doesn't even remember a video of a guy named Daniel Pearl

[Vagabond]

I couldn't even scream loud enough to tell Pitt to GO F*CK HIMSELF.  Picture a meteor hitting Earth with the words WILLIAM PITT GO F*CK YOURSELF etched into the side in 200 foot tall letters.  That is how big my GO F*CK YOURSELF is to Will Pitt and all of the other parasitic ass lice at DU.

You said it much more eloquently than I thought it.  People with that mindset don't deserve to live, stupidity this bad didn't use to be actively discouraged.

[GOBUCKS]

Worst Case Scenario
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Columnist

Before Fitzmas, he called himself "Executive Editor" or something like that.
It's gotta be pretty humiliating for a pre-eminent journalist like DUmmy Pitt
to be demoted by a numbskull operation like truthout. But at least Pitt has
his memories of the glory days, swatting at fireants in Crawford, wearing his
midnight cowboy costume, rubbing shoulders with the ditch witch. At least
hardly anyone knows. I imagine days go by when truthout doesn't get a hit
that comes from anyone but themselves.

[franksolich]

Before Fitzmas, he called himself "Executive Editor" or something like that.
It's gotta be pretty humiliating for a pre-eminent journalist like DUmmy Pitt
to be demoted by a numbskull operation like truthout. But at least Pitt has
his memories of the glory days, swatting at fireants in Crawford, wearing his
midnight cowboy costume, rubbing shoulders with the ditch witch. At least
hardly anyone knows. I imagine days go by when truthout doesn't get a hit
that comes from anyone but themselves.

The Bostonian Drunkard's also been "managing editor" there, too.

After his stupid Fitzmas Fiasco--for which one has to blame the Bostonian Drunkard more than the Leopudlian reporter--he went way down, to simply "contibutor."

He was "contributor" for a while, and then slowly raised back up to "columnist."

That's the first thing I look for, when I see the Bostonian Drunkard, his current title.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Oh, mama, whose love for humanity and animals is too much for her body to contain, is just being honest.  One has to be pretty abomindable, to be loathed by mama.

Well, the Pittstain is indeed pretty abominable.

[diesel driver]

You said it much more eloquently than I thought it.  People with that mindset don't deserve to live, stupidity this bad didn't use to be actively discouraged.

Pitt is living proof that some people are alive only because it is illegal to kill them....

[diesel driver]

The Bostonian Drunkard is an idiot, a spoiled rich flabby kid, and he stinks, but the Bostonian Drunkard would have to descend some miles to sink to the same level as the skumbag primitive.

Pitt makes James Carville look and seem sane and rational....        

But then again, head lice makes Carville look sane and rational....   

[BlueStateSaint]

Pitt makes James Carville look and seem sane and rational....        

But then again, head lice makes Carville look sane and rational....   

I've heard Sean Hannity say that if you need someone to come out and support you, and you've got Carville on your side, you don't need anyone else.  Apparently, Carville and Hannity are good friends.

[diesel driver]

I've heard Sean Hannity say that if you need someone to come out and support you, and you've got Carville on your side, you don't need anyone else.  Apparently, Carville and Hannity are good friends.

True that, but if you have Carville all by himself spouting the Dim/Lib mantra of the day, he's bonafide, certifiable, NUTS!!!!

[Chris_]

True that, but if you have Carville all by himself spouting the Dim/Lib mantra of the day, he's bonafide, certifiable, NUTS!!!!

Based on what some of my friends in DC tell me (my son lives and works there), Carville, when off-camera is a completely different person than the person that we routinely see on the tube.......I suspect that much of his "commentary" is for purposes of making money......a true capitalist conservative value........

doc