Total sense from Applebaum. Compare her reasoned position with the rationalizations and excuses for military abuse made by Instapundit. Money quote from the latter:
I do confess that I think that winning the war is much more important than Abu Ghraib, and that viewing the entire war — and the entire American military — through the prism of Abu Ghraib is as unfair as judging all Muslims by the acts of terrorists.
This sentence is one I can fully agree with. But one has to ask: where has he been for the past year? Accusations – and convictions – of torture and abuse can be found in literally dozens of detainment facilities, across Afghanistan, in Tikrit, Camp Cropper, Basra, Gitmo, and on and on. Thirty six inmates have died under interrogation. No cases of abuse were found in any detention facilities that were not geared toward interrogation. Abu Ghraib is therefore one smidgen of the problem, hyped because of highly selective visuals. Furthermore, I did not describe wrapping someone in the Israeli flag as torture. Glenn should correct the record. I cited it as one instance among many (including torture) in which offending someone’s religious and cultural identity was deployed by U.S. interrogators, as Applebaum and the factual record testifies. Glenn has one sub-clause in his rejoinder that even says: “when Andrew was a champion of the war on terror.” Excuse me? My careful, fully documented criticisms of the U.S. treatment of detainees have been made not because I am anti-war or anti-military. They are because I am pro-war and pro-military. Does Glenn really believe for a second that idiotic tactics like brandishing fake menstrual blood or Stars of David at Muslim inmates are good interrogation practices? Does he think these excrescences have helped gain any useful intelligence in any way? The problem with these abuses is that they are evil and stupid; immoral and counter-productive, as so many experts in interrogation will testify. All of this is the gift to bin Laden that keeps on giving. But it wasn’t Newsweek who gave him the gift. It was this administration. And, indirectly, those who shill for it.
The Dish 