The media has led with the story of our interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and in an effort to shock our national conscience, the report says, among other things, that he was told that if there was another attack on American soil, the CIA would “kill your children.”
I’m sorry but I’m left cold by this. The man who masterminded the actual murder of 3,000 Americans and changed our country forever, wanting to do more, was told that his children would be threatened if another attack took place. Let’s recall what we’re actually doing right now: We use Predator drones to actually kill terrorists with missiles — and we actually kill their children, friends, and relatives at the same time.
We truly have forgotten 9/11.
This is a clear portrait of the philosophical difference on this issue. Those who support these techniques believe that it is OK not only to threaten the children of terrorists, but to go ahead and kill them as well. Those who are opposed, feel this is not OK. I give Leibsohn credit that he lays it out, we have done this for a long time, we are doing this now and we will continue to do this, so don't act shocked when you find out it is happening. The question is are you OK with it?
He goes on to make an even harder philosophical point:
Back in 2001, without naming names, there were serious, intellectual people in Washington who spoke among themselves of doing things far worse than this to prevent another attack. There were learned moralists and foreign-policy experts who privately discussed schemes like threatening to target Mecca if another attack took place. Of course that never became policy, and it wasn’t the administration, but that was the mindset of an awful lot of serious people.
This, I believe, is the truest version of Cheney influenced foreign policy I have seen. The Church of the United States of America, where the US is God and anything and everything must be done to protect her, for she is the highest power and good in this world, that must never be destroyed. This is something not often talked about, but there are many foreign policy wonks who subscribe to this religion. God may or may not exist, but the US does and it is the purest form of Truth and Goodness, therefore any method to protect it is acceptable, including genocide.
I think this post speaks to an overall problem in political discourse and that is the inability of either side to be frank and honest about what they believe philosophically. Take Health Care. The right, if they were being honest, would just come out and say, they don't believe everybody deserves health care, they do not believe government is good for anything except for defense, so get a job, pay for your private health insurance and stop whining. The left, if they were being honest, would come out and say they believe private insurance companies do not care about human beings, just the bottom line, therefore there should be no such thing as private health insurance, but a non-profit, single-payer government run health care system for everybody. But somehow everything has to be equivocated.
So, back to our original subject. Do you think it is OK to do, literally, whatever it takes to protect this country, or do you believe there are moral limits to this?
One final note, I did this last shot amusing:
And finally, as the administration blasts away at the CIA, somewhere at Langley, good men and women, watching their agency go through these political throes, are watching their president who started all this play golf and tennis today.
How soon we forget George W. Bush clowning around in San Diego, while his own citizens died in the flooded streets of New Orleans.
