Notes from Evil Bender

Tony Blankley shills for cover-ups on NPR December 13, 2007

Posted by Evil Bender in Morality, News and politics, wingnuts.
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Today NPR broadcast one of the worst arguments I’ve ever heard: Tony Blankley, PR shill and right-wing nut, argues that whoever destroyed the CIA torture tapes was a hero. Like every anti-freedom torture apologist, Blankley thinks that releasing the tapes would anger the Muslim world–of course they would–but can’t see the problem isn’t the tapes, but the fucking waterboarding. I honestly can’t believe I have to say this, but since NPR is giving this idiot a platform I guess it needs to be said. If we don’t want to poison the Muslims against us, the key is to stop torturing.

Torture is illegal, immoral and ineffectual. The only reason to do it is to give people who think Jack Bauer should be VP a chance to jack off while pretending to fight terrorism. Destroying tapes doesn’t help us “win hearts and minds” as Blankley would have it–it only demonstrates that the Bush administration never gave a fuck about that in the first place.

The only way we’re going to win the PR battle over terrorism is to stop acting like terrorists:  until we stop torturing, stop covering up the evidence of torture, and stop making decisions based on what the wingnuts want instead of actual foreign policy, we’re never going to make any headway making the world inhospitable to terrorists.

And the great irony here? Blankley says whoever destroyed the tapes was a hero because he ignored political concerns to focus on national security. Of course the opposite is true: this decision was almost certainly made to cover up politically-motivated decisions which have absolutely destroyed our good will around the world.

And that much is obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. But apparently that doesn’t include those being given a national platform.

[for more on this, check out Norwegianity's take: great stuff!]