Torture

I am really impressed that Dick Cheney is continually seeking out the spotlight and trying to paint a better picture of himself. I am also continually impressed that so many Americans have decided for themselves that what we did was not torture (even though after WWII we prosecuted Japanese for waterboarding as well as our own soldiers after Vietnam). The thing that is really sick with denying that it was torture is that these people are probably the same ones who believe in manifest destiny (get over yourselves America is just another country).

Lets look at another country that has done extremely horrible things: Nazi Germany, but I would be willing to wager that if they had managed to surrender without the Allies taking full control, there would have been no Nuremberg trials and no one brought to justice. People would even have said, no what we did wasn´t really all that bad, hell it was even necessary. The sense of guilt that Germany finally took on was not something they immediately accepted, but had to be pushed on them from the Allies. That was necessary. In the US however the officers will get away with it because they followed orders (that excuse didn´t fly at Nuremberg). I know these are two very different examples but the idea about guilt and accepting the truth is the same. I am happy the US has a president who isn´t arrogant and can even admit that the US makes plenty of mistakes. Refreshing difference from Cheneyism.