The Dish

I guess you can call this polarization. I don't. It's simply denial and ignorance. As usual Jonah Goldberg is sympathetic to a reader who writes the following:

If captured by Americans, [terror suspects] may be startled by loud noises, have water splashed in their faces, or suffer the sleep deprivation of the average American college student studying for final exams, but they can rest assured, no harm will come to them. Their own mother's couldn't have guaranteed their safety with such certainty.

There is no way to be "startled" by continuous noise so loud it prevents any sleep for weeks on end, and if waterboarding meant mere splashing, I doubt it would be commemorated in Cambodia's museum of torture. As for the average American college student, how many do you know who have been forced to stay awake – by noise, hypothermia, beatings, shackling in excruciating stress positions for … 960 hours.

NRO readers do not know these things because they do not want to know these things. Because if they were ever forced to confront reality, their heads might explode. But one thing you also know: National Review is not going to tell them. It didn't when it had a chance to stop this evil; and it won't so long as it wants to resurrect it.

If you need a factual account of who was seized and imprisoned at Gitmo, Andy Worthington has compiled the definitive one. It's particularly apposite when you hear the current debate in which Cheneyites still use as a premise the notion that everyone in Gitmo was and is "the worst of the worst." Since the Bush administration released hundreds even they realized were innocent of anything, they had already conceded this, but won't, of course, publicly admit it (that would require admitting error which Cheney and Bush are incapable of doing). But this staggering fact is worth reiterating again and again and again as the disgraceful legacy of Cheney and Bush gets burnished by the pro-torture right:

I also hope that it provides a compelling explanation of how that same government, under the leadership of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, established a prison in which the overwhelming majority of those held — at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total — were either completely innocent people, seized as a result of dubious intelligence or sold for bounty payments, or Taliban foot soldiers, recruited to fight an inter-Muslim civil war that began long before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and that had nothing to do with al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or international terrorism.

If you want another highly credible source for the same conclusion, read National Journal's exhaustive study, summarized by Stu Taylor here. Of 132 cases examined by NJ's Corine Hegland, more than half were not even accused of fighting the US at all. These people were those whom National Review's Cliff May wanted assassinated en masse by a missile.

You know: the ones so many people ridiculed Geithner for? Guess what? They worked:

In the end, the stress-tests were a nice metaphor for Obama administration economic policy writ large: The communications aspect was a bit muddled—who outside Wall Street has more than a vague idea of what they entailed? The macro forecasting was a bit off–the stress test’s pessimistic scenario assumed unemployment would average 8.9 percent in 2009; the actual number will be at least 9.2 percent. But the tests and their aftermath were well-thought through–top officials like Geithner, Larry Summers and Christie Romer spent hours gaming out every possible scenario (including a meeting during Passover that ran so long Geithner’s special assistant passed out matzah to stave off starvation). And, most importantly, they backed us away from the brink of disaster. Not bad for a policy that cost about $787 billion less than the stimulus.

Today on the Dish we had a flurry of activity coming off the holiday lull. Extensive wraps of the latest Iranian uprising here and everything else since Christmas here. The biggest news of the day went by quietly: the US finally shed its HIV travel ban. Read about the first beneficiary here.

In GWOT coverage, Marc Lynch showed how constrained the US is in face of terrorist-filled countries like Yemen, Yglesias wondered why Republicans don't call for torturing drug dealers, and a brother of a US soldier worried about the practice spreading to his family. James Joyner furrowed his brow over the new TSA guidelines while Bruce Schneier looked on the bright side of the old ones.

Andrew kept watch on the festering sore of bigotry in Uganda. Some positive signs of Iranian victory showed up here and here. Unsettling signs from the anti-Obama South popped up here and here (though a reader cautioned about jumping to racial conclusions in general). Rory Stewart and Andrew reexamined Obama's approach to Afghanistan. The credibility of Rasmussen was examined by Nate Silver, Greg Sargent, Think Progress, a reader, and Andrew. The internets had a bit of fun with Glenn Reynolds.

Sarah Palin continued to reveal a secretive nature, David Cameron flashed some bipartisan cred, Ryan Avent talked urban decline, the Dish surveyed the survival of health insurance in its current form, and a reader corrected Brit Hume's ignorance. We also checked in with another recession view and displayed some more beard action. Readers started to counsel Andrew on his wisdom teeth. Be sure to catch this heartwarming story of a canine hero.

— C.B.

A reader writes:

All the new torture scenarios are starting to scare me. At this point they all still deal with the 'other' like a terrorist, drug dealer or a gang member (Padilla). But there is another scenario that goes through my head and hits close to home. Here is how it goes:

My little brother is currently stationed in Iraq with the US Army. (This is true)
My little brother has had a support role for CIA intel units (true) but is not an officer (true)
My little brother was stationed at Ft Hood, where a terrorist attack by a soldier has already occurred (true)

While at Ft Hood, mostly because he was bored, my little brother attends classes on the Koran. (true)

Now the scenario:  

One of the soldiers in my little brother's unit, lets call him Glenn, is actually working for the enemy and attacks and kills some fellow soldiers. Glenn is caught and there are concerns he knows of more attacks. They bring in a CIA interrogation unit that is known to torture suspected terrorists. During torture, to tell the interrogators what they want to hear, Glenn informs on my little brother, who is innocent. He says they were buddies and they went to Koran classes together and they talked about blowing things up. My little brother calls home scared – he is confined to base and has been ordered to report to the interrogation unit in 2 hours and he knows he will be tortured.

What do I tell him? That torture is an important tool in the GWOT and so he should take it like a man? That he should run for it? What the hell do I tell him?

I don't feel too far away from this scenario when I hear/read these folks talk.  It has the ticking time bomb. The known enemy. Far away from US soil. The expendable private. Scary shit. I wonder how many of the pro-torture folks have expendable privates for little brothers in a combat theater.

The GOP rule is that anyone the president suspects might be an enemy combatant can be tortured. Of course that can mean a US citizen, as in Padilla, or a US soldier. And the president will never be wrong in his suspicions because he can always torture until the victim confesses and proves the torture justified. It's a wonderful little circle if you worship the power of the government over the individual, which is what contemporary conservatism has come to mean.

An interesting proposal from the British Tory leader, David Cameron:

The Tory leader kicked off his Election campaign yesterday by pledging to create a cross-party 'war cabinet' if he wins power. In the first of a series of eyecatching policy proposals, David Cameron used his New Year speech to announce that he would give Labour and the Liberal Democrats seats in a new 'cabinet' which will oversee the conflict in Afghanistan.

'I will invite leaders of the main opposition parties to attend the war cabinet on a regular basis so they can offer their advice and insights,' Mr Cameron said. 'When a nation is at war, it needs to pull together.'

Imagine if Karl Rove had taken that tack in 2002. But in this, Cameron is following Obama's choice of Bob Gates as SecDef.

A reader writes:

There are two things I've had done that scared the crap outta me prior to getting them done:

1. Getting lasik surgery.
2. Getting wisdom teeth yanked.

Both were EASY with one issue each:

Lasik: The smell
Teeth: The way it sounds

Neither was painful in the least!  So, stop being a wuss!

I've been putting off Lasik for ever too. My dental excuse is my British childhood. The traumas of socialized dentistry! I can remember the crack as the roots of my incisors were removed (cheaper than orthodontics). So the sound point has not helped. Still haven't called.

A reader writes, "If you are looking for the best beards of the year, the answer may be here:"