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Sharing Credit

A panel on the radio was discussing bin Laden’s execution tonight, and specifically who deserves how big a share of the credit for it. To their credit and my surprise, conservatives are applauding Obama for the raid.

Claims that the Bush administration and its hard-line policies should share the credit are somewhat more dubious. One of the panelists to claim that torture was justified, because it produced the information necessary to find bin Laden. When challenged on the claim, on citations of reports that the relevant intelligence was recovered only after interrogators abandoned tortures, he smoothly shifted gears just enough to claim that subsequent interrogation successes had been possible only because prisoners had been “made compliant” beforehand. An evil euphemism.

I suspect we’re going to hear a lot more of this meme; it has just the kind of untestable truthiness of which the right-wing propaganda machine is so fond. And it deserves to be slapped down.

Claims that torture softened up prisoners for interrogation under more ethical and professional standards should just make the speaker look weak, which, in a very real sense, he is. Just like the he-man who grunts and grips but fails to open a jar, only to see someone with a lot less testosterone and a little more sense twist it easily open with the right tool, or a loosening tap on the counter edge. When the he-man puffs himself up and claims “I loosened that up for you,” what are we to say? Sure you did, big guy. Now get the hell out of the kitchen before you make another mess.

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