Comments on: The cost of killing Osama bin Laden

By: theinfamoush6

theinfamoush6 — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:48:45 +0000

good for you, big guy, to define torture. I’m really proud of you to take on the task and defend it until your death, but let me ask you a question…

2000 years ago, the preferred method of execution for the Roman empire was crucifixion. Spartacus’ entire slave army received death by crucifixion, and so did Jesus, in whom I believe you place your faith. Does the punishment always have to fit the crime? Does certainty and the fallibility of the executive branch permit any evil? or should there be some golden rule? as in only waterboard a terror suspect should you feel ready to be waterboarded in return? How many innocents have you caused to suffer and how in god’s name can you believe that you’re going to heaven?

By: alowl

alowl — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 18:40:09 +0000

Mr Yoo, if you we’re around in WWII, you’d be facing a death sentance. Thank goodness, we’ve become more civilized in the 60+ years since? Hope the whole truth comes out before you meet your maker.

By: drsayle

drsayle — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:44:52 +0000

The problem with torture is this: Is the indiviual telling you the truth or what he thinks you want to hear to make you stop? Ether of which may or may not be verified.

By: possibilianP

possibilianP — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:55:17 +0000

I like details. That’s how I can tell if something is true or not. With the torture argument, we get only statements like “the enhanced interrogations have produced actionable intelligence…”. This makes me want to dig deeper mainly because it sounds like a load of useless garbage designed to cover up the real truth. But there is no digging more deeply. This is all we get. Until we get specific details on what was said and how it allowed us to accomplish a specific goal, we should assume we are being lied to as a nation.

By: stambo2001

stambo2001 — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:50:05 +0000

Wow, full on frontal attack from one sick, twisted minded animal. Mr. Woo should be locked up and studied like Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs. This fellow teaches that logic to your children keep in mind. Woo is a borderline sociopath to most rational, moral minds. His ilk are a cancer to humanity and the reason we have the foreign policy problems we have today. We have full blown sociopaths on BOTH sides of the fence people.

By: upstater

upstater — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:33:53 +0000

John Yoo should be locked up in the Hague, just down the cell block from Bush, Blair, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, et. al.

War criminals, all.

By: PPlainTTruth

PPlainTTruth — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:48:08 +0000

Obama used to criticize the interrogation techniques of the Bush Administration. However, as President himself, Obama did not really make significant changes. In fact, he defended practices that he used to criticize.

He named an equally hypocritic Supreme Court Justice, who got the nomination because of writings that propose expansion of Presidential powers. It’s obvious a type of disguised “kiss the President’s ass to earn the Supreme Court nomination” tactic. And Obama falling for it blatantly is, at least to me, a form of sanitized acceptance of academic bribe — in the form of academic publication. Obama and Bush are the same, once they get to become President. Those lost themselves in power. Many do not yet see it. I wonder how long it will be, before historians find it surprising that nobody wants to say the king is naked, just because Obama used his intellect to cover and counter most of the obvious flaws of his ethical and moral standard, before they are pointed out.

I predict that it’s a matter of time, that history will see Obama as just as weak in succumbing to the lure of accomplishment, power, control, and the aggrandisement of his ego, no different than G.W. was. They all are, even Lincoln albeit to a lesser extent.

By: Nullcorp

Nullcorp — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 01:05:15 +0000

Two videos that might add context to the story:

Bush ‘torture architect’ shouted down at UVA speech
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/03/24/jo hn-yoo-shouted-met-protests-uva-speech/
(I was there – someone was holding a sign that said, “Shame on Yoo.”)

Eliot Spitzer took Bush torture memo author John Yoo to task on his show ‘In The Arena’
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_r oom/2011/05/06/john_yoo_bin_laden

http://costofwar.com also shows how much money we’ve spent on waging war in other countries (and then rebuilding their infrastructure, instead of our own). Bush’s pet projects are shown there as separate totals. Watching these guys try to rewrite history is pretty sad, but some of us will never forget.

By: borisjimbo

borisjimbo — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:34:19 +0000

You teach con law? With a straight face?

By: txgadfly

txgadfly — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:06:51 +0000

It appears that it is the responsibility of the US Government to systematically violate the US Constitution at will and to plunder the wealth of the nation for whatever purposes it chooses. Like Louis XIV, the President of the USA can accurately say “I am the State.” if he wants to be.

Whatever remnants of our freedoms we have are either illusions or will be removed shortly. This is the price of being ruled by a Government without limits. Is there a limit to Presidential power? No. There is not. We all live or die at his pleasure.

Makes it a system worth dying for, no? Worth slaving for, no?