I don’t think even waterboarding could get the truth out of him…
I know, I know…I’m getting crazy again.
I just listened to an interview with Hayden where he stated Trump is making America less safe by speaking the way he is about torture. I’ll try to find a link.
I’ve heard that tossed around quite a bit, but only as what seems to be a hyperbolic scare tactic. I’d really like to see a bona fide member of the security or intelligence community lay out a connect the dots on how that actually works.
All I’m seeing is a bunch of people that want to kill everybody over ideology doing exactly what they promised. How does saying we will bomb the shit out of them, implement torture tactics or go after their families change their fervor or modus operandi?
It was a quote from the former CIA director and NSA Chief, Michael Hayden. I don’t think you could find a more qualified person to make the claim.
On a different note- I think Trump is an aikido master of going low. He chopped away at Rubio until Rubio reciprocated, which he was obviously out 9f his element in doing. Once Rubio did this Trump stepped out of the way and let the little guy blunder his way right out of the race, minus his dignity of having maintained any semblance of moral high ground.
If Cruz isn’t very carefully with this wife thing, he’s going to quickly find himself out of his element and making the same mistakes.
1 Like
I agree. He has been ruthless with his opponents and is crushing them one by one.
1 Like
I know that the claim has been made by a number of high ranking officials. I want to see some fact based explanation of how it actually works though. It could be completely validvalid, but without some demonstration of cause and effect, what is it?
When you have lost Bill Maher, you have really lost it.
1 Like
I found this refreshing last night.
Has Maher started TRT or something? He’s starting to sound like he has a pair.
If he got rid of some of those effeminate affectations one could easily mistake him for a man.
No.
Bill Maher does not like stupid (Right OR Left); nor the impingement on people’s rights, (whether you agree with them or not).
I think that his stinging attacks on organized Religion and on stupidity on the Right had people falsely labeling him as a flaming Liberal. While he is by no means a Conservative…he also is not a pansy, “bleeding-heart” liberal by any stretch.
2 Likes
Agreed, I see him speaking out when Leftism goes too far left. It used to be the Righties who poo-pooed all the fun, we are now seeing Lefties do it. Shit, you practically have to leave Earth to have fun these days.
1 Like
That is relatively recent. He has made a career being a tugbout for the left. Not that I fault him for it. The guy has made a great living out of it. I just wouldn’t ever mistake him for an actual defender of equality for everybody including those he disagrees with or the easily unlikeable.
Can you speak more to “all those wars we won by any means necessary”? You cited WWI and WWII, but U.S. conduct in both conflicts was informed by international law and Thomas Aquinas’ just war theory. Wilson was a Kantian internationalist that championed the establishment of the League of Nations, and FDR advocated for the “World Policeman” that would become the UN Security Council, a body devoted to upholding international law.
Elaborate on fight wars as some would have us". I can’t speak for Sloth, but nothing he has written would lead me to believe that he is naive about the nature of war. As for myself, my background is in security studies, and I’ve written enough on these forums to make it clear to any reasonable observer that I’m a champion of U.S. military preeminence.
Terrorism is a direct threat to the United States, but not an existential one. It will not destroy America, but unprincipled, myopic, Manicheanism will rot her soul. Advocates of torture and the target of non-combatants aren’t hard-nosed realists. The ends don’t even justify the means in this case. The empirical evidence leads us to conclude that such conduct will only lead to the further radicalization and mobilization of terrorist organizations.
He’ll also make America weaker by inviting more aggression. Imagine a president as thin-skinned as the current president, and much more impulsive and reactive to perceived insults. Trump will be tested right and left, because smart players know they can manipulate him into all kinds of stupid, impulsive mistakes.
Trump would be a bigger foreign policy disaster than Obama, and that’s a Hell of an accomplishment.
1 Like
Let’s set aside for the moment that torture is grossly illegal and immoral.
It doesn’t work.
https://www.cgu.edu/pdffiles/sbos/costanzo_effects_of_interrogation.pdf2
http://m.jpr.sagepub.com/content/51/3/388.short1
Not only does it not work, but it’s counterproductive. In the context of counterterrorism, it exacerbates that which it is intended to counter. The empirical record supports this, from Alegeria to Afghanistan to Iraq.
http://m.jcr.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/15/0022002715603766.abstract2
There are numerous top military officers, intelligence officials, and scholars who have eloquently argued that torture is not only against American values, but that it is simply ineffective and further endangers American lives. Oh, and its grossly illegal and immoral.
You obviously don’t read the links you post. One dead link from cgu, one using micro analysis data from Guatamala and one that is contrary to you statement. Come on man. You’ve wasted my time with the same links too many times to have me believe that your opinion is anything near “stark analysis”. Why don’t you throw up that McChrystal statement to forther undermine your credibility?