Why, I’ve even said it myself a couple times. And, as always, Hullabaloo is still your one-stop shop for all your garment-rending, breast-beating needs.
As I said, the interesting question for me is: how do people like Digby, Dday, et. al. explain away all the macro-level atrocities while pretending that we would absolutely, assuredly draw the line at holding down an individual in a room somewhere and making him scream in agony? Why would a nation that has shown itself capable of murdering millions of innocent victims balk at that? Why did nuking Japan not cause us to “lose our soul”? How did we retain our “moral legitimacy” while brutalizing Southeast Asia and Central America? Since there was no blogosphere at the time, I wonder what people like them thought about the sanctions on Iraq — were they wailing nonstop throughout the ’90s about this stain on the national soul? And for the love of all unholy, how do they persist in pretending that “the world” is somehow just as shocked to hear about this as a certain segment of middle to upper-middle class liberal Americans?
Go talk to some powerless people sometime, guys and gals. Ask them how those with power act when they don’t fear retribution. Or go experience it yourself! Dress like a hobo, borrow some old jalopy and go violate a traffic law. See how the cops act towards you when they don’t think you look like the kind of person providing their salary through your taxes. Then think about how easy it would be for power-hungry bastards like them to act even worse to voiceless people from another country while sequestered away in a secret location, especially if they’ve convinced themselves that these people are guilty of some crime against the fatherland.