Mengele Couldn't Have Said It Better

NPR likes to tout their "drive way stories," the ones where you sit in your driveway long after you've turned off the engine so that you can hear the end of a particularly interesting, engrossing, endearing, inspiring, or (your adjective here) story. There is a cousin to this kind of story--the drive-your-car-off-the-road story, where you become so dumbfounded, ballistically angry, depressed, or (your adjective here) that you have trouble operating your vehicle safely. I heard one of the latter Monday afternoon and I feel the need to share.

It's in the public domain that the folks who proposed using torture on detainees were military psychologists who had administered and overseen SERE training. (SERE, Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, is a program that aims to somewhat inoculate US serviceman against torture by applying the techniques to them in a controlled environment.)

Also out there is the almost universal horror expressed by the community of psychologists that some of there own would participate in torture, much less propose it as a legitimate tool against suspected terrorists.

Well, NPR's Alix Spiegel scooped the world by finding a colleague of these torture advocates willing to go fully on the record not only in support of, but in praise of these people and their actions. The man's name is Bryce Lefever, and he said this:

"I think the media ought to give us a big ol' thank you for our efforts on behalf of America," Lefever says. "There should be some recognition of the effort — the really extreme effort — that we've gone through to help."

After all, he said, the 15 or so SERE psychologists knew that these techniques worked. After all they had used them for years in SERE exercises and they could always be counted on to break down big bad Marines, SEALS, Army and USAF special forces members.

"You know, the tough nut to crack, if you keep him awake for a week, you torture him, you tie his arms behind him, you have him on the ground — anyone can be brought beyond their ability to resist," says Lefever.

Now, you could quibble with this 'til the cows come home. But I'm gonna ignore the fact that there is a huge difference between a potentially innocent suspected terrorist (reality) and the Jack-Bauer-caught, dead-guilty, evil doer (fantasy). I will also ignore that the vast majority of the inmates at Camp Xray in Gitmo were eventually found to be innocent bystanders, grudge cases or bounty trophies.

Instead let's humor Lefever. Let's grant him his point.

Okay, but what about the ethics, he was asked. Psychologists are thought of as health care providers, there to ease mental anguish, not inflict it. That's the way it "seems at first blush," Lefever said. But the real ethical standard is to "do the most good for the most people." After all:

"America is my client; Americans are who I care about," says Lefever. "I have no fondness for the enemy, and I don't feel like I need to take care of their mental health needs."

That's were I lost it and almost jumped the curb, took out 2 pedestrians, a boxwood hedge and a mailbox. That is the classic "ends justify the means," amoral argument. It only works if you are an ignorant, short-sighted member of the favored cohort. I mean, the Final Solution was to be for the benefit of all the Aryan peoples and surely they dwarf the numbers of those that had to be eliminated to achieve this good. Likewise, the militarists in Argentina were eliminating the minority Marxists to achieve the greater good, weren't they?

"Dr. Mengele, how do you respond to the universal denouncement of your experiments on live concentration camp inmate as war crimes?"

"Nazi Germany is my client; Germans are who I care about," says Lefever. "I have no fondness for the Jews, and I don't feel like I need to take care of their health needs."

Try it with the Argentinian physicians who assisted in torture during the Dirty War. It works there too.

"Argentina is my client; Argentinians are who I care about," says Lefever. "I have no fondness for the Marxists, and I don't feel like I need to take care of their health needs."

I was hoping against hope that Spiegel would challenge Lefever with a comparison like this, but I was, of course, disappointed.

Lefever, while protesting that he personally had nothing to do with suggesting or implementing the torture program, said he was proud of it and saw nothing to apologize for now that it was front page news.

That's how evil gets done. My (your group/nationality/party) is not good because it's actions and principles are beyond reproach, it is good by definition and therefore all who threaten it are evil and, after all, you cannot abuse an evil person, can you?

I encourage you to listen to the NPR story. I'd be interested in your opinion of it.

I, in the meantime, will be picking boxwood out of my grill.

I swear I'll post here

Another year plus has gone by and all I've done is put up yet another promise to post.

Here it is. Let's see if I do it.

New Year's Reolution

This year's resolution is to actually post on this blog this year.

Don't know why I took the year off here. I blogged a plenty at my birder blog, BirdbrainsofAustin. Go check that one out.

Not like there wasn't plenty to write about, but oh well, this is another year.

Time to post aplenty!

Blah Blah

Check out Sam Harris and his argument for a return to rationality.

Long national nightmare ended?

Has it? I don't know. The fact that enough people rejected the current political trend and punished the intransigence of the Republican leadership is a good thing. It shows that we're still awake here and, while slow to react, eventually will.

But already the political discourse is changing. Democrats have a real opportunity to show that they can be sane, rational and fair, which is what the electorate hopes they will be, I'm guessing. The last bunch just kept blowing sunshine up our proverbial until people finally saw them to be the fantastical creatures they are, and sent them packing. How awesome to see Rick Santorum sent home with 38% of the vote. Little disturbing that Corrupt Conrad (Burns) ran as close as he did after all his malfeasance, but at least he lost. And George Allen, oh that was awesome. One less blowhard to worry about running in 08.

The best of it was, for the most part, the Reps secret weapon, scurrilous attack ads didn't save them. Maybe in the Tennessee Senate where racist appeals seem to work, but no where else. They lost all the other toss up seats in the Senate. Maybe the end is in sight for these ugly attacks. ;-) Okay, I know better than that.

But maybe some balance has been restored. Can't wait for January.

Wow, I missed all of October

Got so busy at work that I missed all of October here at the ol' blog. Shame. Thought I'd check back in with a link to Keith Olbermann's latest attack on Bush and his ilk. It's a nice counter punch to the attack on Kerry's comments on getting stuck in Iraq in you don't get enough education. Of course, the right wing distortion machine claimed Kerry meant only ignoramuses join the military, when Kerry was talking about George Bush. Unfortunately, the mainstream media covered the right wing spin instead of stepping back and seeing exactly what Kerry meant. A friend of mine even sent me an email in disgust that Kerry had blown the election.

Whoa! No he didn't. Polls out today show Senator Macaca, Talent, and Dewine trending downward along with Tom Kean in NJ. Only Corker in Tennessee had good numbers. Zogby had him up 10 and Rasmussen only 1. Every other Republican Senate candidate is trailing. House polls look good too and 70 percent in a Time poll said Bush had no strategy to win in Iraq. The Kerry thing is a manufactured blip that shows both the power of the right wing distortion machine, and the desperation of Bush whose trying to rerun the 04 campaign by beating on Kerry and mentioned gay marriage. That's an attempt to get the base out volunteering and working hard for Rs in this campaign, as Rove hopes turnout with help the Rs eke out a save Tuesday.

So don't sweat it too much as that story if off the front pages and the Rove noise doesn't seem to be working that well this time around.

Senate Caves to President

The Senate passed the President's detention and torture bill. 34 brave Senators (32 Dems, Jeffords (I) and Chaffee (R), voted against this fear-based betrayal of our Constitution. Olympia Snow didn't vote. All the other Republicans voted yes along with 12 shameful, cowardly Democrats, some voting to immunize themselves against Republican attacks in the next 6 weeks (Menendez, Nelson, Nelson, Stabenow). Others live in Republican leaning states (Johnson, Landrieu, Pryor, Rockerfeller, Salazar). Can't figure Lautenberg from NJ or Carper from Delaware. Lieberman was predictable.

Apparently these spineless wonders don't think we can be safe while observing international standards against torture (which we helped write) and Constitutional standards that are the basis of the liberty they claim they are protecting. Of course we CAN be safe and free. This is all about power and the shameless fear mongering needed to seize it.

If Dems do win a majority in the Senate, where will these dirty dozen stand then?

The Real Path to 9/11

Keith Olbermann puts the lie to Bush administration claims that they couldn't have done more to stop 9/11. They examine the evidence in this report. Catches quite a few of the administration officials in bold faced lies. Enjoy.