Former President George Bush Speaks On Water-Boarding

Two days ago, former President Bush was asked, in light of hindsight, if he would have assented to Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s “Water-boarding” and the former President responded with a resounding, yes! Say what you must about the former President… he has convictions. And let me up front, I am one of those who shed no tears for terrorists who want to do us harm; especially being a resident of Brooklyn, New York.

As an attorney, I am intimately privy to the tenets of our Constitution and the animated debates that were had because of Bush/Cheney’s sanctioning of “Water-boarding.” I have no time for those who waxed poetic about the Constitutional restrictions on Water-boarding … all I can remember is the images of people jumping trying to escape the fiery Twin Towers.

I am tired of those who are always saying that Water-boarding doesn’t work; it may not have worked on John McCain, but stop speaking in absolutes.  As a veteran member of the Army’s Infantry, torture would have been effective on me and many others I know.  If torture is always ineffective, how come some of our operatives carry cyanide capsules?

Down in Fort McClellan, during basic training, I remembered seeing the line of ambulances… before entering a smoke filled room… without the benefit of a mask - my objective being to recite my name and SSN. By the time I got to my middle name, I was involuntarily coughing, vomiting, and clearing my sinuses. How many of you would deem what I just described as torture if we were to subject would-be jihadists to what I went through in Army Basic Training?

There are times, when I think we have become potted plants with many of us suffering from a chronic case of the Stockholm syndrome… empathizing with those who want us dead. If I had to choose between torturing someone who knows the whereabouts of weapons of mass destruction that could harm my wife and daughter and the ideals of our Constitution… my choice is rather academic.

To hear many of the critics of Bush/Cheney on the issue of torture, the tandem are worse than Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, or Castro. It reminded me of my father who once went ballistic because my step-mother was exercising to one of Jane Fonda’s work out tapes. When I inquired, my father conveyed to me that Miss Fonda branded many of those who served in Vietnam as “Baby-Killers.” I often thought that if my dad was a “baby killer” for serving in Vietnam… how come his appetite for killing babies has abated – where did it go? I ask too that if Bush/Cheney got some sort of sick thrill from Water-boarding… upstanding citizens like Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the like… what is it that Bush/Cheney are doing now to feed the Water-boarding/torture addiction?  On this issue, I support President Bush wholeheartedly… for this victory against terror requires a Carthaginian Peace.