perfidy

What part of "We're at war" are you having a hard time understanding?

It's not like they're spiriting Cindy Sheehan away to one of these places, after all. (Though come to think of it...)

Oh my God. Are you kidding?

Not that again.

Do you have a macro written that just autofills the words "Don't you know there's a war on?"

Steven, I used to read your stuff for the richness of your arguments and for how crazy it made me. I disagreed with you much of the time, but always found your stuff compelling, interesting, and generally thoughtful. Unfortunately what often turned me off, as happens often elsewhere in the right-leaning blogosphere, was the assumption that everyone who questioned tactics used by the Army or government in the GWOT were, somehow, not getting the big picture. Were, somehow, less intelligent, less manly, ... less.

'What part of 'we're at war' am I having a hard time understanding?'

Not a goddamn frigging word, you condescending prat. I get that we're at war. I get that the stakes are high. I get that sometimes, as Mencken put it, "Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."

Great. I get it. So what. Is that your argument?

I'll turn this around.

What part of "America is supposed to be above the nasty shit that we get all over the rest of the world for pulling" don't you understand?

What part of "A Modell of Christian Charity," The Constitution, the Declaration, the Bill O' Rights, and George Herbert Walker Bush's Thousand Points O Light Speech don't you understand?

What part of "What good is a victory if we sell out our core ideals to win it" don't you understand? Nice work, Capt. Calley! You saved the village!

There are a hundred constructive ways to talk about where the line falls between right and wrong, American and monstrous, necessary and gratuitous, and it's a debate that needs to be had.

But don't you dare kick it off by questioning my perception or intelligence.

J,
From the article, by an unnamed intelligence person:

"We never sat down, as far as I know, and came up with a grand strategy...Everything was very reactive. That's how you get to a situation where you pick people up, send them into a netherworld and don't say, 'What are we going to do with them afterwards?' "

Your tax dollars hard at work.

Now, I'm no tree-hugging peacenik, but I absolutely believe someone, somewhere ought to have decided what was going to happen to these people before they were captured. Interrogate them? That makes sense. Until when? Cuz after oh, 4-5 years under wraps I doubt they have much further intelligence utility.

So what then? Well I dunno. But alot of people get paid alot of money, and have decades in the military and federal gubmint, to decide these things, and at least ONE of them should have.

Fucking-A. It's like fishing: throw back the ones you can't eat. Or something else crass and horrible.

That's what frosts my biscuits more than anything else, is the half-assery of the perfidy. People think of the CIA and Mil-Intelligence as these superefficient dynamos, when stuff like this makes them sound like superfluous dildoes. Where's the decision-making? Where's the congressional oversight?

Where's the one guy who stops everyone and says "hey... maybe this old torture chamber isn't the right place to keep prisoners. Get the bulldozer."

I mean, shit.

Your preaching to the converted, as far as it goes. Shit, I thought the 3ID should've bulldozed Abu Ghraib as soon as they were near it because of its reprehensible history, not USE the fucking thing. If I knew about its reputation, and the effect us using it might have on the locals, how's come gubmint smart people didn't?

You're venting now, so won't take your equation MI=dildoes to heart. It's like any other group, in that the smartest ones aren't necessarily running it. And besides, they answer ultimately to the Legislative or Executive branches- not often the most...mentally capable membership there.

And let me add this: comparing this to the Stasi sells Stasi short. No German would allow this level of grabassery and disorganization for so long.

I shoulda added "no offense to present company" when I said that thing about MI. I know how organizations work. Turds float to the top.

Sorry about that.

J,
No offense. You're heated. I like it. Besides, I have to remind myself that I'm 9 years out of that world; present tense comparisons wouldn't really apply.

Sometime I'll tell you about a MI major I used to work for who was a dildo. A major dildo, if you will.