A Tortured Charade

We are not safer, and the President's Guantanamo posturing, along with the release of the "torture memos" only puts us more in danger.

Cheney and Obama went head-to-head a few weeks ago over the treatment of captured terrorsts, with the former VP administering a masterful schooling to the President. Gerald Seib sums the issue up quite succinctly in his definitive WSJ analysis:

He (Cheney) said the release "was flatly contrary to the national security interest of the United States," adding that it gave terrorists "a lengthy insert for their training manual."

Mr. Obama said releasing the memos in no way helped aspiring terrorists train against U.S. tactics, since the interrogation techniques were now banned by the White House.

Cheney is right. Obama is wrong. Here is how the memos help any terrorist going up against the US:

The memos reveal our medically-supervised, careful regard for human life and the law, what with the fake walls, anti-whiplash collars and whatnot. Oliver North said it best. I paraphrase from memory, with my own embellishments added in, so apologies to the Colonel:

These techniques were intended to scare the crap out of the scraggly bearded rabble we scooped up off the battlefield. Killing and torturing is against our values, so we cannot do those things; but we sure as hell can make captured combatants think that we will torture or kill them. So we scare the crap out of them hoping they will spill the beans. We crafted a deliberately well-thought out plan intended to put mortal fear into them, but the cat's out of the bag now.

What's the lesson?

Imagine the following advice being dispensed in a thick Arabic accent to a young jihadi: Americans are weak. They can't even bring themselves to kill their mortal enemies. If you're captured, take the fifth, ask for your ACLU lawyer and an International Red Cross representative. You can ride out whatever they throw at you while reclining at table eating halal. Accuse them of Koran abuse while you're at it. They will not kill you, they will not harm you. They will only try to scare you with threats that we now know are empty.

That's it folks. The Obama administration has emptied the toolbag. Feel safer now?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124291383880043289.html
WSJ - No Middle Ground - Gerald Seib