Messed Up

Shakesville has some good stuff to say about the Bush torture memos, which basically covers how I feel. I agree that people shouldn't be punished for doing what they were told was legal (though evidence of how easily people can be convinced to do that sort of thing always disturbs me), but I think there has to be some accountability somewhere up the ladder.

To ridiculously over-simplify, when one of the daycare boys got in trouble for throwing a rock at a passing car, the first thing he said was "I'm never going to do it again!" and he clearly thought it was unfair that he had to have a time-out for something he'd already agreed not to do again. But whether or not a deterrent was necessary, the rock had already been thrown, and the act itself was bad enough to warrant punishment. Even if you have such a Utopian vision of humanity that you believe that no future US administration will sanction torture, that we've learned our lesson, that doesn't absolve those who gave the orders from responsibility for the past.

Not to mention I'm sick to death of seeing people in power get away with shit. In my fantasy utopia, the people who have the means to do the most damage are held to higher standards or accountability than regular people.

All that aside, this quote, excerpted from the Washington Post, is messed up:

Some techniques were simply bizarre, such as placing a caterpillar into a confined box holding Mr. Zubaida -- who was believed to be afraid of insects -- as long as the insect did not sting and Mr. Zubaida was not led to believe that it was capable of stinging.

Whenever I feel like vast conspiracies are going on to oppress me, I take a moment to remind myself of things like this:

"Place guy in confining box for hours" = totally acceptable

"Sleep deprivation" = no problem

"Water-boarding" = so awesome

"Allow guy to falsely believe non-stinging insect might sting him" = morally objectionable

Because bureaucracy breeds ineptness as much as evil, I at least can hope to outwit them.