In comments that signal a shift away from his talk earlier this week over the US resuming the use of torture on detainees, President Trump today confirmed in comments during a joint conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May, saying he is leaving the torture question up to Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Mattis has made clear his opposition to torture, and his belief that it isn’t effective, and despite Trump once again today insisting he believes torture works, he will defer to Mattis, and Trump says he expects Mattis to keep the ban in place.
This makes the entire discussion over the week about torture, with Trump insisting top intelligence chiefs had assured him torture was a great way to extract information, pretty pointless, as both Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo had made clear their opposition to the practice, and Trump apparently did not intend to overrule them.
Trump also insisted during the news conference that he is confident the US will win the war against ISIS with or without the use of torture, which once again raises questions as to why he brought the idea up again in the first place, with his pro-torture comments during the campaign having been more or less forgotten in the face of Pompeo’s and Mattis’ public criticism of the idea.
Translation into Oldspeak: Daddy Mattis told little Donny no.
Defer to a person who by US law is obliged to say no anyway? That is really a new kind of governance.
I see by the comments that some of the people on this board have got the message. A country always denies that it will take part in torture, then goes ahead and does it covertly anyway. Simply because it works sometimes and modern techniques can separate the wheat from the chaff.
I’ll assume I don’t have to explain that last comment for now at least?
Would Trump be able to handle being told the truth on how torture must always be denied but will be used covertly whenever it’s deemed to be productive?
Or will that be deemed to be above Trump’s pay grade?
Trump played tough-guy for pro-torture ignorant (and not) yahoos and then President Reasonable in publicly deferring to the experts (scare-quotes ad lib) whom he appointed. Sounds like win-win to me, especially since the policy adopted is the morally right one.
It’s exactly the opposite of a win-win. Can’t you see that others who matter outside your country will have formed the opinion that Trump favours torture and that all other opinions are nothing but smokescreens to cover up the truth.
They’re not so stupid on the issue to think anything other than the truth and so the facade of the US ‘not tourturing’ just doesn’t play with them. It’s a simple truth that needs to be understood here on this board:
All countries resort to torture and all countries’ leaders need to do everything in their power to convince others that they don’t.
Knowing that and keeping that in mind, the only conclusion to arrive at is that Trump is just plain stupid. He can only get better because he can’t get any bloody worse!
You’re not from these parts, are you, Don.
Just a wild guess.
BTW: Just who are these “others,” what about them “matters” outside my country and why should their opinions mean diddly to me?
Oops…looks like my idle curiosity just stalled out completely.
The opinion of others matters more on this issue than most other issues. So put your fu–ing you-all arrogance aside for a minute while I tell you something you need to know.
It’s pretty simple. If people in other countries get the impression from your whackjob president that he applauds the use of torture then they will react according. So how does this grab ya for an idea of how an American is going to bedealt with. Instead of chopping his head off right away, they might pull all his fingernails and toenails out one by one. Or maybe something even more imaginative, because Trump shot off his stupid cakehole.
Wow!! I should take up fishing. Clearly, I know how to bait a hook.
Trump knows torture works But the secretary of defense is going to make the decision . And he says no . So the USA wins .
Isn’t that special. The cultists of the Don get thrown a bone and he doesn’t break the law. They probably forgot that he already decided to drop torture after talking to Mad Dog once before.
June 13, 2016 – U.S. Government: Torture Doesn’t Work
63% of Americans believe torture of suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified to gather information. While they assume that beating the crap out of bad guys will get them to spill the beans – and prevent more terrorism – top American interrogation experts say that torture actually DECREASES the amount of information we’ll get and INCREASES terrorism. Torture INTERFERES With Our Ability to Fight Terrorism, Obtain Intelligence Information and Protect Our National Security
http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-government-torture-doesnt-work/5530591