We don’t torture, they do.
As I was researching the ‘cross in the dirt’ dust up, I received a mini-education on the treatment of POWs in the hands of the North Vietnamese.PBS’s American Experience documentary series ran “Return with Honor” in 2000, I believe. The vivid history of the American POW is underscored by the drawings of Navy pilot Mike McGrath which recounts the harsh treatment, interrogations and conditions that the Americans were subjected to. See the gallery and McGrath’s commentary, here.
This is, of course, the ironic outcome of taking a look at McCain’s POW experience. I was too young to know what happened in Vietnam beyond reports on CBS News. I suspect that many Americans do not understand that what we would all understand was torture against our men in Vietnam has now been carefully whittled down to euphemisms like, “enhanced interrogation techniques.”Andrew Sullivan points out that by today’s definition brought to us by the Bush Administration, McCain should stop complaining:
The torture that was deployed against McCain emerges in all the various accounts. It involved sleep deprivation, the withholding of medical treatment, stress positions, long-time standing, and beating. Sound familiar?According to the Bush administration’s definition of torture, McCain was therefore not tortured.
