Petraeus Stands Tall against Torture - On FOX!

Via Thinkprogress.



In his support of Obama's order to close the Dentention Center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

PETRAEUS: Gitmo has caused us problems, there’s no question about it. I oversee a region in which the existence of Gitmo has indeed been used by the enemy against us. We have not been without missteps or mistakes in our activities since 9/11. And again, Gitmo is a lingering reminder for the use of some in that regard.

Petraeus knocks down one by one all of the arguments by the Hair-On-Fire crowd that we'll have "Terrorist on our Streets" if not for Good Ole' Gitmo.

He also clearly acknowledges that the U.S. did violate Geneva, and hence did commit War Crimes.

PETRAEUS: What I would ask is, does that not take away from our enemies a tool, which again they have beaten us around the head and shoulders in the court of public opinion? When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Convention, we rightly have been criticized. And so as we move forward, I think it is important to again live our values to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those.

Fox News-Model:What about the concern that because of some of the treatment of (some) detainees, if tried in U.S. courts, they could go free?

PETRAEUS: I don't think we should be afraid to Live our Values - it's what we're fighting for.

The importance of this perspective can't be understated, particularly with the corroborating arguments from General Taguba, who personally investigated Abu Ghraib.

Maj. Gen Taguba saw the horrors first hand during his Abu Ghraib investigation and he believes the Bush administration is guilty of war crimes.

In a preface to a report by Physicians for Human Rights on prisoner abuse and torture in U.S. military prisons Taguba wrote: "There is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes. The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held to account."

With both of these Military commanders, the top commander in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Chief investigator into the biggest military Scandal in a generation both clearly stat Geneva was violated and War Crimes Committed the ability to avoid a full-on War Crimes inquiry becomes more difficult and the likelihood of a conviction considering witnesses of this calibre - grows exponentially.


Vyan