General Petraeus on Gitmo & Torture

[Arlos]

Hmmmm, wonder how the Right-wing attack machine is going to try and spin THIS one:

RFE/RL: As you know, General, the debate over Guantanamo and enhanced interrogation techniques has become "Topic A" in Washington. In your view, does the closing of "Gitmo" and the abandonment of those techniques complicate the U.S. mission in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in the overall struggle against violent transnational extremist groups or does it help it?

Petraeus: I think, on balance, that those moves help it. In fact, I have long been on record as having testified and also in helping write doctrine for interrogation techniques that are completely in line with the Geneva Convention. And as a division commander in Iraq in the early days, we put out guidance very early on to make sure that our soldiers, in fact, knew that we needed to stay within those guidelines.

With respect to Guantanamo, I think that the closure in a responsible manner, obviously one that is certainly being worked out now by the Department of Justice -- I talked to the attorney general the other day [and] they have a very intensive effort ongoing to determine, indeed, what to do with the detainees who are left, how to deal with them in a legal way, and if continued incarceration is necessary -- again, how to take that forward.

But doing that in a responsible manner, I think, sends an important message to the world, as does the commitment of the United States to observe the Geneva Convention when it comes to the treatment of detainees.

Yep, that's right, he just came out in support of closing Gitmo and said that the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (ie, torture) made the fight against the terrorists harder, and thus made us less safe.

The right-wing attack machine has been excoriating Obama for those moves since he made them. Unfortunately for them, in the past they've held General Petraeus up as the best military leader since Eisenhower, pretty much. So, I am really curious as to what theyr'e going to say now that their golden boy just shot their argument right out from under them...

Definitely Kudos to the general for this too. Tis just further proof of how bad for this country the last administration really was.

-Arlos

(Complete transcript of his interview with Radio Free Europe, where that question was asked, can be found here: http://www.rferl.org/content/transcript ... 38626.html )

[Drem]

I'm sure they'll just call him a traitor or something and wonder how he could ever sympathize with a crazy fascist dictator like Obama

[Lyion]

You two missed the whole John Mccain thing and his run for President and stance on these issues, eh?

Not surprising, I guess.

[Arlos]

Um, you missed how many months of me praising McCain for his stand on the torture issue?

Regardless, you and I BOTH know that McCain is at opposite ends of that issue from most of the rest of the GOP. Or have you missed the 837 times Cheney has been on TV or in the news recently talking up and down about how horrible the Gitmo decision is or how Obama is making America "Less Safe" by closing it or by banning torture?

You and I both ALSO know that Cheney and Rush are far more the standard-bearers for the GOP position than someone like Powell is.

Oh, you also seem to have missed the fact that I referred to the "Right Wing Attack Machine" in my post, *NOT* the GOP. Of course, I can hardly blame you for conflating the two, as they are increasingly one and the same these days. So hey, if you want to insist that McCain is part of the right wing attack machine, who am I to argue with you on that point?

-Arlos

[Drem]

I like McCain /shrug

[Gypsiyee]

I like McCain /shrug

I like McCain pre-2008 and post-2008. For the most part, he's always been a respectful middle-ground senator with the country's best interests at heart. He morphed into some crazy bat during election season this past year and was barely recognizable as the senator we've come to know him as. I think post-2000, after the way he lost in the primaries he felt the only way he could win was to employ some of the same tactics and I really think some of that lost him the race. Add Palin to the ticket and you had a really frightening combo of the 'new GOP.'

I was watching Colbert Report last night, and it seems his daughter has a good independent thinking head on her shoulders too - her thoughts seem to mirror the less rabid more moderate side of the right, the right that existed prior to the religious right takeover. if our generation starts leaning back to that type of GOP, I think the party can easily get back on its feet because as Lyion said, the pendulum swings. But the pendulum doesn't swing on its own, the parties have to adapt through the changes. I can't foresee the pendulum swinging back to the fiscally liberal (when convenient) and socially conservative policies some of the GOP has adopted, and they're a little off base with employing Michael Steele trying to be 'hip' too, imo. Some of the stuff is just kind of embarrassing, and frankly a little overtly racist...? I mean down here, they specifically put up "MLK was a republican" posters in lower income neighborhoods trying to target black people. Wrong avenue for the GOP to take - (poor) advertising doesn't do much for you when your current product needs improvement (just my opinion, not a knock at conservatives.)

I thought it was cute how McCain's daughter said "Sarah Palin is the only thing in the campaign that I will not publically comment on." haha.

[Narrock]

I wanna have a beer with McCain and listen to his Vietname stories.