Rich Trying To Stay Relevant: The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us
Remember last week when I said that Frank Rich was obviously making up for the stint he did behind a pay-per-view wall that lost money? Well, he is at it again. This time with The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us.
“Ten days ago The Times unearthed yet another round of secret Department of Justice memos countenancing torture. President Bush gave his standard response: “This government does not torture people.” Of course, it all depends on what the meaning of “torture” is. The whole point of these memos is to repeatedly recalibrate the definition so Mr. Bush can keep pleading innocent.
By any legal standards except those rubber-stamped by Alberto Gonzales, we are practicing torture, and we have known we are doing so ever since photographic proof emerged from Abu Ghraib more than three years ago. As Andrew Sullivan, once a Bush cheerleader, observed last weekend in The Sunday Times of London, America’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques have a grotesque provenance: “Verschärfte Vernehmung, enhanced or intensified interrogation, was the exact term innovated by the Gestapo to describe what became known as the ‘third degree.’ It left no marks. It included hypothermia, stress positions and long-time sleep deprivation.”
The fact of the matter is that we are waging this war as humanely as possible, often to our own detriment. Our troops are put into situations that are more risky then they need to be because we do not want to kill civilians. Those al-Qaeda agents we do capture could very well be executed on the spot if we follow the rules of war, but we don’t. We instead feed them and clothe them, and then interrogate them, as any responsible nation would that wanted to protect its soldiers and citizens. And interrogation via the use of sleep deprivation, or head slapping, or girls panties being placed on one’s head is not inhumane.
The torture chambers Saddam used was inhumane. The rape rooms that Saddam used was inhumane.
You know, those same chambers we put into mothballs because we invaded.
The left conveniently forgets that fact, to no ones surprise. In the end you cannot get over the simple fact that conservatives have been condemning large scale murder and torture by nation states such as Saddams for years, while liberals excuse it.
Furthermore, the Frank Riches of the world would like nothing better than just to forget that 9-11 happened, to forget that our old counterterrorism strategies weren’t working, and that in light of 9-11, the United States had to come up with a new, more aggressive game plan to counter terrorism not just abroad, but here at home, too. To Frank Rich and other uber-liberals like him, the fact that we’ve had to get more aggressive in our efforts against terrorism (and in only rare cases have gone over the line) equates to Germany under Hitler’s rule, where hundreds of thousands of innocents were deliberately tortured and killed in an effort by Hitler to “purify” the human race.
The interesting thing about all this is the fact that Rich and other staunch critics of the administration’s efforts in fighting terror really can’t find any examples that even come remotely close to mirroring what happened under Hitler’s rule, so they have to greatly exaggerate those rare cases where the US has stepped over the line in an attempt to morally equate the US’ aggressive tactics which target Islamofascists who mean to do us harm with Hiter’s tactics which were, again, designed to rid the world of its “undesirables.”
It’s not about Americans being “Good Germans.”
It’s about Americans being bad ” and negligent ” trustees of long held, long cherished values.
Values that generations of American died to protect ” and to perpetuate.
The typical response of Bush sycophants has been to accuse people like myself of suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome. But with the destruction that the president has wrough as obvious as the nose on your face and his hard-core supporters dwindling to a lonely few, that perjorative seems as quaint as an archaic expression like “Gag me with a spoon
As Joe points out, “The phrase is “they’re just being Good Germans.” It’s a phrase that was hideously overused during the Vietnam War (for those of us who remember) and now in the Iraq war:.which has shaped up as this generation’s Vietnam war.”
Rich had to reach in his bag and pull out a phrase for shock and awe purposes. His readership is down, so let’s see what we can do to bring some people back. He is high on accusations of government sponsored torture, but low on any proof that one would expect from a reporter.
October 15, 2007 - 07:24 AM on October 15th, 2007
The problem is that Rich is not responsible to an authority that would severly punish him for writing such garbage.
October 15, 2007 - 08:37 AM on October 15th, 2007
I’m sure Media Matters and moveon.org actually reward him. Another case of grabbing for power.
October 15, 2007 - 08:54 AM on October 15th, 2007
2, BonBon, I think you are more right than you realize. Wasn’t it Frank Rich that the Clintons leaked Hillarycare to in 93? Wasn’t it Rich that wrote a book on it and reaped the royalties for?
Rich is in George Soros’ wallet pocket and is trying to earn more Soros largesse.
October 16, 2007 - 11:02 PM on October 16th, 2007
Personally, I have no qualms about interrogating and then executing the terrorist captured on the battlefield. That’s what the Geneva Conventions call for. The liberals are so concerned with obeying international law need to be taught what international law calls for.