The Department of Torture

We're fucked just for being citizens of a country that elected George Bush fils.  He seemed a likable guy to many, and in truth, I'd rather have a beer with him than with Bill Clinton even though I am a great admirer of Clinton's presidency.  But the Bush legacy is the destruction of all the values that he himself purported to admire.  There is no "aw, shucks" way out of this one.  He crashed the economy, but the Obama administration has begun to repair that (or at least it has bounced back a bit during his presidency).  He loaded the courts and destroyed much of what we assumed were the protections and liberties granted citizens by the Constitution.  But now. . . The Report.

I don't know how conservative Republicans are going to counter this one.  They are saying it is inaccurate, prosecutorial, biased, etc.  People who were involved in the torture, though, are telling another story.  It is true, they say.  They did things that haunt them. 

I am a sissy.  Everyone knows that.  Like Lenny Bruce, I know I would say or do anything when the funnel for the hot lead enema came out.  Granted, our torture might pale to Medieval types like being drawn and quartered, but being kept awake for over a hundred hours with bad music playing 24 hours a day under blaring lights is quite enough, thank you.  And this was physically the most gentle torture the CIA is purported to have performed.  I ask myself just what sort of person is able to do such things? 

But I know the answer.  Just about anyone.  Give them permission and the authority and the reason and people become mean.  Now. . . start with people who want to do it, who have strived to become covert employees of the Department of Torture, people who have "anger management" issues and other untold psychological diseases.

Imagine Bill Cosby in charge of a covert prison.  Or Julian Assange. 

Words like "leadership" and "authority" are at the root of the problem.  They are horrible code words that allow people to do terrible things.  Bush was a leader.  Cheney had authority.  The fantastical idea  of the Founding Fathers was to put checks and balances on such things.  It was a good idea.  So tell me. . . what went wrong?