Okay, in the interest of being “fair and balanced” with my last post:

Clarification from Rush:

“Now, don’t misunderstand. I’m not suggesting that the torture is okay, because I don’t think it is. I’m not suggesting it’s not a big deal. I’m not suggesting anything of the sort. I’m trying to say we are in a war, and there are bad guys from our perspective, and they are it, and there are good guys from our perspective, and we are it; and amongst both groups you’ve got some factions who don’t qualify. There are probably some good people in the bad guys and some rotten apples in the good guys, and these people that did this so-called torture may in fact be the rotten apples of the good guy group. But it’s like I said: it doesn’t taint the whole military effort and it doesn’t taint us, but the world is joining in now trying to taint us as a nation, as a people, and as a culture by virtue of these pictures on the basis that we have humiliated these people. What is hijacking our own airplanes and flying them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? How humiliating is it to blow up American civilians in a convoy and have their charred bodies dragged from the car and dragged through it streets? There seems to be no sensitivity, concern or outrage for any of this anywhere in the world. So pardon me if my patience is a little short. Again, just so nobody misunderstands, I am not condoning it, supporting it, encouraging it, and suggesting that more of it happen. I’m just saying that this overreaction has gone way, way, way too far, and I’m suspicious of it. I think the overreaction is politically inspired and motivated, and has an objective, which is to undercut our effort. I think people who are overreacting to this are doing so in an effort to harm our ability to prevail here, and I’ll be blunt about it, the reason people want to harm our ability to prevail is because they think somehow it will resound negatively on Bush at the polls.”

All well and good, BUT:

When you are the “guardians of the free world”, (and we should strive to be- nobody else has our money, means, and power, and all us Spidey fans know what Uncle Ben says about great power…), you have to hold yourself to a higher standard. It is quite possible to maintain outrage over atrocities done to Americans while at the same time vilifying those soldiers who would engage in the same practices.

We knew this wouldn’t be a popular war. So why weren’t precautions taken? Why are we setting ourselves up for more war, terrorism, etc. in the future?