[Dialogue] Some Kind of 'Manly'

Sat Nov 12 00:06:26 EST 2005

Colleagues, another one from Molly. Peace, Harry 
  _____  

AlterNet

Some Kind of 'Manly'

By Molly Ivins, AlterNet
Posted on November 11, 2005, Printed on November 11, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/28154/

I can't get over this feeling of unreality, that I am actually sitting here
writing about our country having a gulag of secret prisons in which it
tortures people.

I have loved America all my life, even though I have often disagreed with
the government. But this seems to me so preposterous, so monstrous. My mind
is a little bent and my heart is a little broken this morning.

Maybe I should try to get a grip -- after all, it's just this one
administration that I had more cause than most to realize was full of
inadequate people going in. And even at that, it seems to be mostly Vice
President Cheney. And after all, we were badly frightened by 9-11, which was
a horrible event. "Only" nine senators voted against the prohibition of
"cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under
custody or control the United States."

Nine out of 100. Should we be proud? Should we cry?

"We do not torture," said our pitifully inarticulate president, straining
through emphasis and repetition to erase the obvious.

A string of prisons in Eastern Europe in which suspects are held and
tortured indefinitely, without trial, without lawyers, without the right to
confront their accusers, without knowing the evidence or the charges against
them, if any. Forever. It's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."
Another secret prison in the midst of a military camp on an island run by an
infamous dictator. Prisoner without a name, cell without a number.

Who are we? What have we become? The shining city on a hill, the beacon and
bastion of refuge and freedom, a country born amidst the most magnificent
ideals of freedom and justice, the greatest political heritage ever given to
any people anywhere.

I am baffled by these "arguments:" But we're talking about really awful
people, cries the harassed press secretary. People like X and Y and Z (after
a time, one forgets all the names of the No. 2's after bin Laden we have
captured). The SS and the Gestapo and the KVD weren't all that nice, either.

Then I hear the familiar tinniness of the fake machismo I know so well from
George W. Bush and all the other frat boys who never went to Vietnam and
never got over the guilt.

"Sometimes you gotta play rough," said Dick Cheney. No shit, Dick? Now why
don't you tell that to John McCain?

I have known George W. Bush since we were both in high school -- we have
dozens of mutual friends. I have written two books about him and so have
interviewed many dozens more who know him well in one way or another. Spare
me the tough talk. He didn't play football -- he was a cheerleader. 

"He is really competitive," said one friend. "You wouldn't believe how tough
he is on a tennis court!" Just cut the macho crap -- I don't want to hear
it.

If you are dead to all sense of morality (please let me not go off on the
stinking sanctimony of this crowd), let us still reason together on the
famous American common ground of practicality. Torture. Does. Not. Work.

Torture does not work. Ask the United States military. Ask the Israelis.

There seems to be some fantastic scenario floating around -- if Osama bin
Laden had an atomic bomb hidden in a locker at Grand Central Station, and it
was due to go off in 12 hours, and we had him in prison . I seem to have
missed some important television program on this theme. I am told it was
fiction, but it must have been really scary -- it certainly seems to have
unbalanced the minds of some of our fellow citizens.

Torture does not work. It is not productive. It does not yield important,
timely information. That is in the movies. This is reality. I grew up with
all this pathetic Texas tough: Everybody here knows you can't make an omelet
without breaking eggs; and this ain't beanbag; and I'll knock your jaw so
far back, you'll scratch your throat with your front teeth; and I'm gonna
cloud up and rain all over you; and I'm gonna open me a can of whup-ass .

And that'll show 'em, won't it? Take some miserable human being alone and
helpless in a cell, completely under your control, and torture him. Boy,
that is some kind of manly, ain't it?

"The CIA is holding an unknown number of prisoners in secret detention
centers abroad. In violation of the Geneva Conventions, it has refused to
register those detainees with the International Red Cross or to allow visits
by its inspectors. Its prisoners have 'disappeared,' like the victims of
some dictatorships." -- The Washington Post.

Why did we bother to beat the Soviet Union if we were just going to become
it? Shame. Shame. Shame. 

Molly Ivins writes about politics, Texas and other bizarre happenings. 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20051112/97dc29bb/attachment.htm
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 1542 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20051112/97dc29bb/attachment.gif