We’ve got what amounts to a reverse Nuremberg defense, where Bush administration officials are let off the hook because they were only giving orders. I’m not sure that’s such a great idea.
"Reverse Nuremberg" is a clever phrase, but I hope the author actually recognizes the difference between Lynndie England's making a naked pyramid of random Iraqi detainees for kicks, and Dick Cheney ordering waterboarding on Khalid Sheikh Mohammad because KSM was believed to have useful information. It's going to be rather difficult to have a debate about this if people on the left insist that torture is only and ever done out of sadism (though I do believe reports about 80+ waterboardings of a guy who broke after the first waterboarding indicate a slide toward sadism).
"Reverse Nuremberg" is a clever phrase, but I hope the author actually recognizes the difference between Lynndie England's making a naked pyramid of random Iraqi detainees for kicks, and Dick Cheney ordering waterboarding on Khalid Sheikh Mohammad because KSM was believed to have useful information. It's going to be rather difficult to have a debate about this if people on the left insist that torture is only and ever done out of sadism (though I do believe reports about 80+ waterboardings of a guy who broke after the first waterboarding indicate a slide toward sadism).
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