Two Bush Legacy Tragedies (BLTs) that are easy to confuse

[ThomWV]

On January 20 our cup of Bush Legacy Tragedies (BLTs) was only half full, but its filling rapidly. As more and more injustices come to light it is easy to forget some of the old ones and easier yet to meld one into another where the root evil is similar.

At their heart the torture of prisoners and the mistreatment of prisoners seems to be the same thing. However I think they are not. In the case of torture we have CIA Agents (or their agents) trying, illegally. to extract information from specific individuals. This is different from military personnel stacking up naked men in pyramids with their female guard's underwear draped over their faces; no one was trying to extract information, they were trying, illegally, to humiliate their detainees. Because individuals we held were abused its easy to see both as the same, but clearly they are not. It doesn't make a bit of difference that our interrogations are limited in technique to those 19 time-honored methods listed in the Army Field Manual if your intent isn't to gather information but instead to disgrace the people you hold. So while I am very glad that President Obama has brought one BLT to an end with his Executive Order I think he still has to address the other.