The "Torture" Debate: They killed 3,000 people. They meant to kill 50,000.
Nancy Pelosi is finding herself in an uncomfortable position - hoist on her own petard. Long may she remain in that well-deserved place.
Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats in general are discovering the perverse power of narrative. While George W. Bush was preoccupied with defending the nation after 9/11, the liberal left and their media allies succumbed to the temptation to play politics. In the beginning, I suspect they were genuinely outraged at the atrocities of 9/11 and went along with the Bush Administration's gritty resolve to do everything possible to avoid a repeat. And many Democrats, realizing that the Saddam Hussein regime was a human rights atrocity of the first order and a threat to the stability to the Middle East, signed on to the effort to get rid of him.
But war is an expensive, dirty, nasty and heartbreaking business. And while the Democrats were rediscovering this fact, they became increasingly reliant on funding and support from the increasingly potent lefty nutroots. They felt the lure of the alchemist, and while they did not make gold, they certainly found out how to make hay. And thus the Bush Lied narrative was born. The War on Terror was not real, Bush simply exploited it to strengthen his hold on power. He tortured and detained and abused gleefully, and without accountability or oversight, in order to combat a bogus threat. And since W was never much for contentious discourse, and since he suffered the same second term slump that seems to be a pattern with the modern presidency, the Bush Lied narrative grew until it dominated the Democratic party and the national debate.
Nancy Pelosi went along with the narrative. enthusiastically and thoroughly. But as Sherlock Holmes might have observed, she lacked the requisite trait of the true artist: she did not know when to stop. The Democrats, having used The Narrative to propel them to an election victory, should have ceased fire. But in their determination to go after Bush officials, they have reopened the time capsule, and the actual facts are spilling on to the carpet in full view of the public.
As a compassionate conservative, I suppose I should feel sorry for Nancy Pelosi as the vultures swirl. But somehow, I can't do it.
But if she needs a character witness, I suggest she summon Senator "Do What You Have To Do" Schumer (D-NY). (h/t Academic Elephant)
In hindsight, it's becoming more and more clear how we started down the slip n' slide. I'm going to pass this one around.