Questions for Andy McCarthy
A few days ago, Andy McCarthy wrote:
American soldiers, American civilians, and other innocent people are going to die because Pres. Barack Obama wants to release photographs of prisoner abuse.
The Obama Administration subsequently decided against releasing the photos. But I see tonight, via Drudge, that graphic new prisoner abuse photos are making news.
Should Mr. McCarthy read this post, I’ve got a question: shouldn’t this cause you to revisit your thinking about the strategic wisdom of what you call enhanced interrogation techniques? After all, these photos having been made public, your position is that innocent Americans are going to die. This despite the fact that our government actively tried to suppress the photos.
This sounds an awful lot like the arguments advanced by some torture opponents, who assert that evidence of brutality is always going to get out, and that the backlash undermines our safety more meaningfully than any information gained enhances it.
Were Americans to continue waterboarding detainees, slamming their heads into walls, shackling them naked on the floor, etc., are you really confident that images of these acts would never leak? How can you be so certain that the Obama Administration’s release of those photos would’ve made us less safe due to the backlash, and so confident that “enhanced interrogation techniques” won’t provoke a backlash as dangerous?
Andrew McCarthy Friday, explaining that Muslims don’t really care about such things because they don’t believe in human rights:
“I think the claim that you need to close what everyone now concedes is a first rate facility (Gitmo) because it is a symbol of wickedness and a blight on our ‘reputation in the world’ is about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. First, our reputation with whom…the Muslim world? I always wonder how that conversation goes: Ahmed and Nidal are on their way home from the Friday stonings when Ahmed turns and says, ‘You know, these Americans really offend me. They’re so insensitive to human rights …’”
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDU0OTBkNGY0NjAzZWMwNzhkMjQ0OWM4OTMzYjY4Yjk=
— Aaron · May 16, 02:31 PM · #
The guy’s a clown. Even Mark Levin manages to make the very rare sensible point.
— Ali Choudhury · May 16, 06:11 PM · #
What terrifies me is that McCarthy is a former AUSA, and he seems to have no facility whatsoever with logic or evidence.
— southpaw · May 16, 07:04 PM · #
Sheesh, Conor, what do you expect from someone that got all starbursty over a 44-year-old grandmother with big hair and mall bangs?
— matoko_chan · May 16, 10:09 PM · #
Conor:
Which government was it that actively tried to suppress the photos? The Obama government? I have little doubt that the Obama government—which never lets the right hand know what the left hand is doing—encouraged the release of the photos. As usual, Obama can have his Kobe steak and eat it, too.
— jd · May 16, 10:42 PM · #
JD, I see your point. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that President Obama is actively suppressing the photos. The fact remains that some photos have leaked somehow, and that according to some, that puts innocent American lives in danger. Given all that, I think my argument and conclusion remain valid.
— Conor Friedersdorf · May 16, 11:44 PM · #
I fail to see how you can expect anything BUT inconsistancy from conservatives. The socon agenda is antipathic to individual freedom and liberty. Free market capitalism is survival of the greediest. Belief in the Manifest Destiny of Judeoxian Democracy in the face of history and evo theory of culture requires such a profound disconnect from empiricism and reality that I am astonished the neocons can tie their own shoes in RL.
The three legged stool was a devil’s bargain that has gone wobbly in the 21st century.
Obama is a machiavellian pragmatist and a systems guru.
His program to extricate us from foreign misadventure in Iraq and Af-Pak can best be seen as a graceful degredation of service under expert (mil) advisement.
— matoko_chan · May 17, 01:28 PM · #