Or they could have posted large-format, close-up, very detailed
photographs of

Dick Cheney’s butt. Or they could have forced them to have their
hair done in that same rear tidal wave that

Condoleezza Rice sported lo those many years that she carried out
little George’s dirty work. They could have put them in extremely close
quarters with Rush Limbaugh while he was coming off the pills and
sweating profusely. They could have locked them up in the same bathroom
with Larry Craig and some foot lube. They could have had Ann Coulter
jump out from behind a wall and make crazy faces at them and break out
into a fan dance wearing nothing but adult diapers and big fuzzy house
shoes and talking nonstop while tweeting people about it. (Let’s keep
that one in mind for the future, just in case all hell breaks loose
again.) They could have tortured people in a lot of ways other than
what they did. But they didn’t. It would be laughable if it weren’t so
sad that there is even the slightest bit of debate about whether or not
it was legal, moral, worthwhile, productive — whatever —
for the United States to torture other human beings. To physically harm
them — slowly, repeatedly, and viciously. I’m glad President
Obama released the memorandums that the Bush administration created to
condone this policy, but I hope the rest of them remain secret, because
I, for one, have heard all I need and want to hear, chicken as that may
seem. They had me at Abu Ghraib. That was plenty. The most frightening
thing about that was the “interogators” obviously enjoyed doing what
they were doing to those people, some of whom were just taxi drivers
and shop owners who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong
time. Remember the photo of that repugnant U.S. soldier who had a huge
smile on her face while holding a bloody, naked man on a leash? You
think she prevented another “terrorist attack”?

I love it that those in the hot seat are now saying this is all
about “bad legal advice” and nothing more. I would say that
waterboarding someone more than 250 times in one month goes just a tad
beyond “bad advice.” And does anyone really think we’re going to
swallow the idea that George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld
actually solicited legal advice on whether or not to torture with the
intent of even paying attention to it, no matter what the advice was?
From the second Bush put that goat book down and got all cross-eyed
because he was in way over his head, he and his death squad did exactly
as they pleased, without exception, at every turn in the game.

Yeah, I know the attacks on 9/11 were horrible and unprecedented.
And yeah, some Americans, like journalist Daniel Pearl, who was
beheaded by his captors, met with a horrific fate. But that’s the
precise point: Why did we have to stoop to that same level of
inhumanity?

Should the lawyers who gave the “advice” that it was okay to torture
other human beings be prosecuted? I don’t know. I wouldn’t even bet a
nickel that they weren’t told by the higher-ups what opinion to write.
Hopefully, they will be called to testify in some fashion and actually
tell the truth. My bigger hope would be that Cheney would have to do
the same, but I have no faith that he would do that, even under oath.
As for George W. Bush, I think he screwed up badly enough to go down in
history as the worst president the country has ever had, and if he
someday realizes that and lives with it for the rest of his life, that
may be enough. Plus, it would save us from having to listen to him talk
again.

I doubt Barack Obama will go to the lengths of prosecuting any of
these people, but hopefully they have enough of a conscience to be
squirming as more information about what they did comes out. A public
“Shaming Day” might do the trick. But probably not. If they aren’t
ashamed already, it may be a lost cause.