What could be worse than the revelation that Bush personally approved waterboarding, which we ourselves called torture when the Japanese used it in WWII. Bush justified using torture because he claims it saved lives by producing actionable intelligence. However, the former chairman of British intelligence disputes this, saying that waterboarding, which is definitely torture, did not produce any information that prevented any terrorist attacks, and that Bush was simply trying to “justify what he did to the world.”
Interestingly, even though Obama refuses to investigate Bush for torture, at least one of the new Republican congressmen says he would have “no hesitation whatsoever” in holding hearings about Bush’s use of torture.
But if that weren’t bad enough, Bush’s newly published memoirs reveal the hypocrisy of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. Back in 2006, McConnell asked for a private meeting with Bush where he asked the president to reduce the number of troops in Iraq in order to improve the Republican party’s chances in the upcoming midterm election.
It is a surprise to virtually nobody that the Republicans played politics with the Iraq war, so why is this news? Well, the very same month that McConnell was privately asking the president to make troop reductions for political gain, he issued a blistering statement attacking the Democrats for … calling for troop reductions in Iraq.
The Democrat leadership finally agrees on something — unfortunately it’s retreat. Whether they call it ‘redeployment’ or ‘phased withdrawal,’ the effect is the same: We would leave Americans more vulnerable and Iraqis at the mercy of al-Qaeda, a terrorist group whose aim — toward Iraqis and Americans — is clear.
In other words, McConnell is admitting that he is willing to put American lives at risk in exchange for political gain.
