MB Civic

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/opinion/18krugman.html?pagewanted=print

Krugman asks: “Why is Mr. Bush so determined to engage in torture?” His answer is “To show that it can.”

He points out that, “People with actual knowledge of intelligence work tell us that reality isn’t like TV dramas, in which the good guys have to torture the bad guy to find out where he planted the bomb. What torture produces un practice is misinformation, as its victims, desperate to end the pain, tell interrogators anything they want to hear.”

Referring to the centralizing of power in the executive, Krugman says, “The central drive of the administration…has been the effort to eliminate all limits on the president’s power.” He might also have added “the vice president’s power,” since Cheney clearly runs the show. Krugman adds, “By making an illegal and immoral practice a key element of U.S. policy, they’re asserting their right to do whatever they claim is necessary.”

Noting that this “war president” has been anything but – since, among other things, he never asked anyone to sacrifice anything, but rather to “go shopping” – Krugman concludes that, “Only now, five years after 9/11, has Mr. Bush finally found some things he wants us to sacrifice. And those things turn out to be our principles and our self-respect.”