The American Inquisitors 2
Shaun Mullen laments American cowardice in the face of the Bush torture regime. A nugget:
And so we arrive at another defining moment in the long road since an incurious news media finally began acknowledging something that a number of bloggers, myself included, and civil libertarians had known for years: Despite repeated denials by George W. Bush and his coterie of henchmen, notably Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, they approved of Nazi-like torture techniques under the cover of grotesque legal opinions that violate the Constitution and Geneva Conventions.
One question that nags me, one that I suspect cannot be answered, is this: To what extent was the policy of torturing captives–and it was policy, not the deeds of the infamous “few bad apples”–motivated by simple sexual sadism, both immediate on the part of the torturers and vicarious on the part of those who authorized the policy?
April 9, 2014 at 4:09 pm
As the author of the post (thank you, sir) I have no idea as to whether homoerotic sexual sadism played a role, but that will not keep me from speculating that it probably did. People who got their rocks off torturing puppies and kittens as youngsters would seem to be prime candidates for doing the same — or ordering the same done — to captive adult men, and I would not be surprised if there were youthful animal abusers among our brave, unaccountable leadership.
April 9, 2014 at 10:29 pm
What is clear to me is that we had an administration full of extremely warped persons who wore nice suits and looked good in meetings.
I think this is relevant.