Thought for the Day

[bcholmes]

Do I give Hitchens credit for coming to these conclusions? Hardly. You see, there are those of us who had figured all of this out years ago, and we didn't actually have to undergo the experience to do so. It was enough to understand what the procedure was, to understand its history, to understand its effects, and to imagine oneself in the place of the victim. In other words, it took merely the most elementary historical and ethical sense, one that takes no special training or experience. In shorter words, if you actually have to get tortured to know what torture is and that it's wrong, then you've already left the real world far behind.

— "Hitch Gets Waterboarded", Shakespeare's Sister

This is pretty much my reaction.

It's also close to my reaction to all the politicians who've lately been talking about how they were lied to about Iraq. Y'know: lots of people were lied to about Iraq; many of us saw through the lies.

Comments

[surelars.livejournal.com]

And even if you didn't see through the lies, you might have paid just a wee bit of attention to all the people screaming "he's lying". I mean, it's not as if there was only a single point offered.

[the_axel]

My counterpoint to your opinion is this:
It is easy to maintain an opinion, whether right or wrong.
Changing an opinion is hard.
Saying "I was wrong" even more so.

He did change his opinion, which is good.
He didn't say "I was wrong" which limit's the value of hs change of opinion.

The above notwithstanding, his set of opinions are complex, and he comes across as a patronizing intellectually-macho dick.

[seajay06.livejournal.com]

I'm also pretty disgusted with the 'mainstream' media's sudden turnaround, especially since McClellan's book came out.

[sabotabby]

Agreed.