Obama v. Cheney on Guantanamo, Prosecutions, Torture

obama on 60 minutes last night...

Commenting on former Vice President Dick Cheney's recent assertion that the closure of Guantánamo will make America more vulnerable to attack, Obama said, "I fundamentally disagree with Dick Cheney. Not surprisingly. You know, I think that Vice President Cheney has been at the head of a movement whose notion is somehow that we can't reconcile our core values, our Constitution, our belief that we don't torture, with our national security interests. I think he's drawing the wrong lesson from history."

"The facts don't bear him out. I think he is, that attitude, that philosophy has done incredible damage to our image and position in the world. I mean, the fact of the matter is after all these years how many convictions actually came out of Guantanamo? How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney? It hasn't made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment. Which means that there is constant effective recruitment of Arab fighters and Muslim fighters against U.S. interests all around the world."

juan cole...

It is worth asking how many US soldiers died or were wounded at the hands of ordinary Sunni Arabs who would have been at their day jobs if they hadn't been enraged by the Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo torture. In short, how many US soldiers did Cheney personally murder?

cheney is an evil man and the sooner he no longer has access to a public forum, the better off the world will be...

also, as i sit typing this in kabul, afghanistan, there are three afghans here with me in the office... not a single one of them have any use for the u.s. policies that have attempted to turn the world against islam, have murdered their countrymen on a wholesale basis, and that are keeping many innocent fellow citizens imprisoned in bagram airbase a mere 60 kilometers from here... they are smart people and realize that, in general, the u.s. people should not be confused with their leaders, and that folks like me have as much distaste for the criminal undertakings perpetrated by our government as they do... unlike us, however, afghans know THEIR government is worthless...

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