Let's Go For A Dunk

The Vice President of the United States of America told Scott Hennen of WDAY that the debate over interrogation was "a little silly" and that it was a "no-brainer for me" in response to a question as to whether "a dunk in the water was a no-brainer if it could save lives." He has since denied that he was referring to water boarding, that he was in fact referring to no particular interrogation tactic. President Bush stated, "This country does not torture," and Tony Snow said, " A dunk in the water is a dunk in the water." Apparently nobody knows what Dick Cheney was talking about.

Now I've been know to say I'd like to "dunk my aching carcass in a hot tub," after a hard cold day's work and I've known of some Mid-western friends to refer to a swim as a dunk, but quite frankly I can't think of any interrogation that was going on. This leads me to think that the "dunk" the V-P was referring to wasn't quite as innocuous as the White House would lead us to believe. Now I've got a son who was at one time four years old and had that unfortunate four year old disconnect from the truth, even when he was standing in the midst of his mess. The White House is standing in the midst of its own mess and denying that it exists.

The problem with secrets is that they aren't, and the problem with hiding things is that they just refuse to stay out of sight, and this Administration has gone to great lengths to be the "most" in both catagories. The so-called rebellious Congress gave the President the authority to interrogate with whatever he determined was short of torture, he apparently doesn't think a dunk is torture. Tony Snow doesn't know anything and Dick Cheney didn't mean anything. Orwell postulated a world where words had no meaning, I'm afraid somebody's been reading his book.

The President of the United States of America won't tell Americans what torture is or what his definition of torture is. So it's a secret and all you're allowed to do, until the truth leaks out, is guess. There are a whole lot of ways water and getting information can be mixed together, the problem for Americans, on whose behalf this stuff is happening, is that no reasonable person can come up with something that isn't torture. Add into the mix that Congress also handed participants in interrogation a "get out of jail free card," and the whole thing starts to look twisted.

Subjecting a helpless human being to overwhelming fear or pain is twisted. We go to movie theaters to be frightened by twisted images, or at Halloween to haunted houses, but we certainly should not be seeing it in our White House. Let's get down to the very basic part of this issue, the things done by our country are our responsibility, they are done in our name, my name, and I object. If it were your child, your cat, your neighbor's dog and you saw it you'd go nuts. Just try real hard to get me to believe that your response would be, "oh they were bad."

Have a really nice day, but stay away from the water...