11.14.2005

Torture and Jarhead

I went and saw Jarhead the other day and actually kind of liked it. I noted that all the uniforms were without USMC insignia and name tapes so I am guessing someone in the Department of Defense didn't like it. The movie is anti-war and the book is anti-war but what I appreciate is that both attempt to realistically portray military life. One thing that the movie leaves out that is in the book that I feel is actually very important is the author's decided contempt for anti-war protesters. The author perhaps felt the war was unjustified but he also felt that the anti-war protesters of the time were out of touch with the issues. Which gets me back to my little war memoir, that I am writing. I work on it sporadically and I have seven short chapters complete. Maybe, I'll let ya'll read some.
There is much uproar about the CIA torturing suspected terrorists and how horrible they are for doing that. I happen to think that we should torture suspects. We should just do a better job of keeping it secret. How secret are secret prisons if the Washington Post knows about them? I honestly think that every major government in the world has engaged or is engaged in some form of torture but I think they just don't tell anyone. And what is this I read about CIA agents being unable to carry out assassinations?! I am referring to this passage from the Washington Post article cited above:
The CTC's chief of operations argued for creating hit teams of case officers and
CIA paramilitaries that would covertly infiltrate countries in the Middle East,
Africa and even Europe to assassinate people on the list, one by one.
But
many CIA officers believed that the al Qaeda leaders would be worth keeping
alive to interrogate about their network and other plots. Some officers worried
that the CIA would not be very adept at assassination.
"We'd probably shoot
ourselves," another former senior CIA official said.
What kind of secret agent can't kill people?