double standards

1) We're willing to look back to punish people who leaked sensitive material, like that Iraqi War video from a couple months ago. But not to go back and look at people who authorized things that were far worse than anything that happens in the banality and casual nature of war and all its attending violence. It might be perfectly fine to punish somebody for posting and leaking classified materials. I just wish that more serious crimes could be held accountable.

2) Because in pursuing that course, we're also overlooking that we, as a consequence of having programs that were far worse, had DOCTORS who were overriding valuable ethical standards of their own profession to supervise the application of pain and suffering in a rigorous way to other human beings. That's been known for a long time (it was in those notorious torture memos from last year). But it wasn't quite known to what extent such actions were going. They were cataloging the amount of pain or suffering received. Now certainly I'm not going to argue that it indeed is useful if you're going to simulate the effects of drowning someone that you'd want to know how to do it such that the subject, who you presumably believe has information, doesn't die, on the logic that they will supposedly tell you this important information afterward (which I accept can and sometimes did happen, but categorically do not accept that this was the only "effective" method available as a matter of course). But that said, IT DOESN'T FUCKING OCCUR TO ANYONE THAT DOING SOMETHING THAT COULD POTENTIALLY KILL THE SUBJECT IS POSSIBLY CROSSING A VERY DANGEROUS LINE INTO TORTURING THEM? Wouldn't it have been better to just stay the hell away? Bear in mind also that the supposed justification of doing so was that it was to be used strictly on high level detainees (loathsome people like Khalid Sheik Mohammed). Yet if they have enough data to essentially be running experiments to test the efficacy of the method, then almost by definition you're dealing with multiple subjects. As we did indeed torture more people than merely the "worst of the worst", many of them were totally vindicated as completely innocent and several cases, were KILLED during or by their interrogation or were driven insane and potentially killed themselves to escape further torment. If the amount of cognitive hoops that are needed to continue to justify such things seems maddening, I suggest that we overlook the fact that we're willing to ignore that it happened at all and are holding no one accountable for it.

But of course we can easily find someone who posted a war footage video and distributed it to the American people illegally.