"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Yoo Memo Link Dump

I haven't really mentioned this phenomenon, but for some fascinating discussions on the memos and their repercussions, see Balkinization, particularly posts by Jack Balkin (and an interesting one here, on alternatives to war crimes trials), Marty Lederman (of value for its link to discussions at Convictions), another by Lederman and one by Scott Horton, both around issues of academic freedom, tenure, and calls for Yoo's dismissal from the law school at UC Berkeley.

For some scathing and cogent commentaries, see Glenn Greenwald, here, on the dangers of scapegoating John Yoo, and here, here (scroll down to item 9), and here, on who also bears responsibility for this whole mess.

And no discussion is complete without a segment of What Digby Said, and we'll throw in a brief spot on What Tristero Said as well.

I know -- it's not really fair of me to dump on you like this, but these are all well worth reading if you're going to have a clear understanding of some of the real issues around Yoo, torture, and how it was implemented and justified (however ineptly).

As for my thoughts, in light of the latest revelations (which, frankly, come as no surprise, nor does Bush's offhand "I approved it"), I can only repeat what I've been saying for 18 months or so (which is when I started a thread at EA Forums on torture as American policy -- which is still going): it's disgusting, it's immoral, and it's un-American.

And, in purely pragmatic terms, torture doesn't work, at least not if you're after hard information that's actually of some use. We've known that for 400 years. Well, most of us have. I guess the self-absorbed frat boy must have missed that lecture.

So I don't really need to say it again.

No comments: