We Need a New Excuse

The Washington Post had a story last week about a bunch of veterans who were tasked with the Top Secret task of interrogating Nazis. And, no, they didn't torture.

Didn't torture Nazis? Didn't they realize they were in a war? Against Nazis?? Well, sure, they knew that. But it appears they didn't torture for two important reasons:

1. Torture is morally wrong (and especially when torture is the hallmark of your enemy... how can you use their hated tool?)
   
   
2. Torture DOES NOT WORK.

Here's the facts: the president has authorized torture. And against people who have largely turned out innocent. Congress seems to know that this is happening. Yet, the American people, so far, have not erupted in outrage. It looks like the President will not be impeached.

Here's the problem: HOW??!? I thought the American people have tacitly accepted torture because we were attacked on 9/11, so that allows the president to do whatever he durn well pleases to anyone he wants. Kill, torture, rape innocent people - why not? - because we were attacked. Wah wah, poor us.

Yet we were attacked in WWII, too. Remember Pearl Harbor, day live in infamy, ring a bell? No? It was like 9/11. No? It was a big deal, believe me. Anyway, we didn't turn into rabid, stupid monsters back then... so why now?

We need a new excuse.

P.S. Next time some moron says that great people don't make history, remember the difference between FDR and GWB.

{2009 Update: Great pic of the Torture Statue of Liberty from here.}

Jewish POWs under the Nazis

I was just alerted to this NYTimes piece from the end of February which describes how some American Jewish POWs were treated under Nazi Germany: The Lost Soldiers of Stalag IX-B

The Enola Gay

According to the New York Times story, anti-nuclear advocates and Japanese groups protest the ennoblement and display of the "Enola Gay" - the aircraft used to drop the nuclear weapons on Japan.

I agree that the Enola Gay shouldn't be displayed as just another aircraft. It is an ominous plane; the last remaining artifact of one of the most momentous events in human history. The scientists, the statesmen, the victims, of the only nuclear strikes ever inflicted on humanity will all fade with time. This vehicle is all that remains.

However, the First and Please Dear God Only nuclear attack on people must be enshrined somewhere. I suggest in the Holocaust museum. Because the Japanese were their allies and in their own way masters of evil that we in the Western world don't often encounter.

The Nazis were straight from the Christian anti-semitic tradition; using a protestant work ethic and Western technology. The Japanese were idol-worshiping criminals against humanity . Just ask the Chinese, the Koreans, the Philiphinos, and any MIA.

We dropped nuclear weapons on them to stop their vicious, noxious evil. Two words: Pearl Harbor. Three words: Rape of Nanking.

And, I would argue, that once we dropped a nuclear weapon on people, we know what it does, and we can never do it again. And if it had to happen, I could only think of one other group (Nazis) who deserved it more.