... war is hell, that in every war bad things are done that MUST be done, and that the vast majority of decent Americans understand this as well, despite you’re preachy moralism on the Dish to the contrary. We do not, unfortunately, live in world where we get to decide between two ideals, but often we only get to decide between actions, and outcomes, that are “really bad” and “even worse”, and even then reasonable people will disagree on what should have been done. Thus some still call Truman a monster for dropping the bombs. - - Daily Dish reader I have seen something like this line of thought a lot in the past couple of days. But the truth is exactly the opposite: we absolutely DO get to decide between ideals. We make the decision how we will treat other human beings, even if we suspect they might have been involved with a heinous crime against us. We get to decide what kind of society and civilization we live in. Our use of torture makes us weak. The same people who say that torture is an unsavory—but necessary—bit of warfare are the same people who scream America is awesome!!! No, were not. Were not awesome. Were no better than any other regime that has tortured people. We can change that ... but for now, we should be ashamed of ourselves.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 19:28:27 +0000