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Via Greg Sargent, a Gallup poll finds 51 percent of the public wants an "investigation into the use of harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects during the Bush administration" and a distressing 55 percent of the public thinks the use of such techniques was justified. Greg remarks:
That suggests, I think, that voters are capable of wanting a thorough airing of precisely what happened and when, even if they don’t necessarily oppose the use of torture.
Why not be cynical and suggest that Bush administration officials don’t have anything to fear in the court of public opinion from a thorough airing of what they authorized? The court of, you know, law is, of course, a different story.
Crossposted to The Streak.
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Even more telling, when they combined the questions, ”favors investigation” was nearly evenly divided between ”was justified” and ”was not justified”.
Back when America was head over heels in love with Sarah Palin and her ticket was leading in the polls, pacifism was starting to look tempting because it looked like Americans were too infantile to be trusted with the power to kill.
With that 55 percent of public, I am feeling that temptation once again. I can only hope that a ”can’t fool all the people all the time” moment will again arrive. Because the world has a lot of problems and threats, and it’s awfully sad to think that the world’s most powerful nation is too damn stupid to be trusted to do anything about them. If only 36% of the people think violating the Constitution was unjustified–that’s hella sad. That’s a guaranteed recipe for future evil.
I dunno, maybe 55% of the public thinks of ”harsh interrogation” as what they see on Law and Order.
Spencer:
A few things: A large portion of the American populace are drooling oxygen thieves. Some members of the Military (Active Reserve Retired, etc.) view a portion of the American populace (Post 9/11 GWOT), as bed wetters on issues such as AQ, WMD, existential threats, comparisons with the Russkies, etc..; they don’t have the info to make a judgment. Hell, these clowns will sign a mortgage agreement without a clue of what the agreement entails.
Lastly, it is difficult to discuss topics such as Interrogation, treatment of prisoners/detainees, torture, abuse, without some sort of historical base, and knowledge of the differing policies, manuals, legal precedents, blah, blah. It was wasted poll.
it was a wasted poll…sorry