Knuck – let me be clear: I doubt that many of our leaders would have done a better job. And as one poster pointed out, Churchill made all kinds of colossal errors and yet is regarded as a great statesman.
The problem is, we no longer live in a world in which lesser military mistakes, moral or otherwise, are long hidden from view. Neither Lincoln nor Churchill nor any leader prior to this media-saturated century has faced anything like the constant scrutiny, or the rapid dispersion of embarrassing photos around the world via the web, that our current leader faces. So small screwups now can quickly become major debacles.
Given that we want to both extract crucial information from certain detainees AND maintain the moral high ground in this fight, any president must now walk a tightrope, and under the klieg lights. Maybe that strikes you as unfair, but that’s the way it is today. To change metaphors, the bar is set a lot higher than it was during the Cold War.
At a minimum, we need someone who can explain to us in clear English how he intends to do avoid torturing (and killing) innocent people; best would be a clear, succinct statement of what are and are not legitimate interrogation methods. This is ultimately the president’s responsibility–the call is made by the president, not his lawyers, not DefSec, not the NSA.
No matter how you want to spin it–and I’m as pro-Iraq War as anyone here– innocent people were tortured at AbuG and that should shame every American. The revelation of that torture was a major setback that should not have happened, and ultimate responsibility for its occurrence rests with POTUS. Sorry if that strikes you as unfair, but to me that’s what leadership means. It’s extremely important that
I do not believe that this would have happened on McCain’s watch if he were POTUS. As much as I detest Kerry, I doubt that it would have happened if he were in the White House. If Kerry were resolutely pro-war, then he’d probably have my vote. Please don’t pretend Bush is a leader of stature. He ain’t.
PS – I’m leaning toward Bush but haven’t committed. I think it helps, not hurts, the Bush partisans’ cause to admit mistakes when they occur and vow ot do better going forward. This was a pretty big mistake.
