Cheney: No Better Than a Holocaust Denier
I may be the last one to figure this out, but it finally occurred to me on Wednesday why dick Cheney is everywhere defending his position on “enhanced interrogation” and waterboarding.
It’s identical to what Holocaust deniers do — they seek to draw you into debate because the very act of debating legitimizes their position regardless of the content of their words.
Unlike other parts of the world, our First Amendment grants Holocaust deniers the right to say whatever they want. On the other hand, it does not force the opposition to debate them. If and when that debate occurs, the fact that the deniers appear on the same stage as legitimate historians gives them a credibility that they have not earned.
So when Cheney calls it “enhanced interrogation,” when he contends that it yielded “valuable information,” when he says they “only” used it on three “detainees,” it’s all beside the point. The very act of appearing on multiple media outlets at every turn — regardless of how absurd he sounds — grants him enormously valuable credibility and stature, while simultaneously corroding the opposition with uncertainty and doubt. In reality, he’s also poisoning the potential jury pool should he ever be brought to trial. But that is a minor by-product compared to the stature he gains by gaining equal footing with law-abiding citizens.
Make no mistake: Cheney has every right to say what he will. But by engaging him on the issue, by giving him on equal stature with respected legal and historical experts, you grant him enormous credibility that his position has not earned because the simple facts are this:
- Waterboarding is torture and a war crime;
- His administration waterboarded (by his own admission);
- Therefore he is guilty of a war crime.
Whether the current administration chooses to prosecute him is part of a discussion that we’ll have at another time. But it does not take away from what Cheney — and Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Gonzalez, Yoo, Addington, Bybee, et. al. — did.
You can debate him all you want, but in so doing you will not defeat him. You will only make him stronger.
“…by engaging him on the issue, by giving him on equal stature with respected legal and historical experts, you grant him enormous credibility that his position has not earned…”
The trouble is, you’re talking to a morally bankrupt, authoritarian following establishment press. They neither understand nor care about the point you are making. That sort of morality is only for the Dirty F*cking Hippies.
right on the money but shep is wrong to expect the media to not cover cheeneys tirade. as disingenuous as his statements are, it is newsworthy. cheeney is not convincing anyone but those already in his corner and in my opinion, helps the opposition by his visibility. he is less popular than hugo chavez. let the man talk.
look, Obama just needs to let this stuff go. it’s hurting the nation that we have to listen to this crap at every turn. waterboarding waterboarding waterboarding…i’m sick of it. Geroge Bush should not be tried for war crimes, not should Cheney. War isn’t fair, and besides, Geneva Convention doesn’t apply to terrorists.
Who said anything about the Geneva convention? We executed Japanese war criminals for waterboarding American GIs in WW2.
Suddenly, it’s OK for us to do it? Not in my name it isn’t.
Who said anything about terrorists? We tortured cab drivers and children.
And I’m pretty sick of waterboarding too, especially since it’s really about beatings, stress positions, forced nudity, sleep deprivation, terrorizing with dogs and general humiliation and degradation. And murder. I’m sick of not hearing about the murder.
You people are NUTS! Waterboarding = pouring water on a bad guy’s face. It makes him feel like he is going to drown. It scares him. BOO HOO . If you can’t scare the enemy in a war, then what can you do? It’s amazing that we’ve done as well as we have in this war against terrorists with you nattering nabobs doing everything you can to make sure we lose.