A Country Who Waterboarded Anyone 183 Times In One Month Can't Say Anything About Anyone

[PaulX2]

We are a torture nation.

Who are we to point the finger at anyone? Oh yeah. The folks with the most nukes, and the most $$. Still doesn't make it right.

https://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2009/04/they-waterboarded-him-i-183-times-i-in-one-month/202940/

Don't be too harsh on the lying sh*t stain for not complaining about NK prison camps.

And about that "shining city on the hill" well, forget it. It's all about money folks. People aren't waterboarded in shining cities.

[maxsolomon]

1. No nation is innocent of crimes.

We CAN say that NK is an oppressive, murderous dynastic dictatorship. The current dictator had his brother assassinated in public. We don't need to be Ghandi to say it's unacceptable to be "honored" to meet with Kim.

Whataboutism is Putin's game.

[BannonsLiver]

3. +1

The OPs logic and others who share the belief that because the US has done terrible things in the past means its people can’t have opinions on the human rights conditions in other countries is child like, at best.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Don't make this a false equivalency.

I will be harsh on the lying shitstain for implicitly legitimizing Kim's torture programs, which far surpass in brutality anything any other nation is currently doing. Of course waterboarding was despicable, but apart from a few apologists in the Bush administration (and Trump himself), it has been condemned by almost everyone in the US; the practice was recognized as torture, and is no longer used. Trump failed to condemn or even criticize Kim's appalling human rights record, and regardless of anything the US has done, he had an obligation to do so. Instead he made it obvious that he didn't care about that. But trying to equate the past, roundly condemned practice of waterboarding with Kim's horrific oppression is intellectually dishonest whataboutism.

[malaise]

4. And kidnapped Latin American children and put them in cages

Precisely

[Hekate]

5. Before falling for bs false equivalency, realize in this country we can still take to the streets...

...without tanks and machine guns mowing us down (Tien An Men Square). We can read the newspaper of our choice, write to the editor, start a paper of our own. We can blog, we can join a discussion board. We can work to persuade others who,do not agree with us. Shall I go on?

We can resist the forces of evil.

After Bush-Cheney we elected Barack Obama, not a mythical savior but a chance to get it right. After Obama, we in fact elected Hillary Clinton -- another chance to get it right.

But Hillary was taken down in an act of war, and the hateful forces of backlash are wearing red hats and thumping their chests.

We are in terrible trouble. But we are not done yet. Tell the truth about our flaws as a nation, by all means, but don't peddle false equivalency. Resist.

[peggysue2]

8. Yes!

The false equivalency, the whataboutism is a primary propaganda technique.

Are we without sin? No! But we are a Nation that strives to correct itself and push towards a better future. At the moment, we're in peril because of enemies within who will work tirelessly to tear the country to pieces and divide us into squabbling factions.

Resist! God knows, we have plenty of work to do as a country, as a people. Helping our enemies tear us apart should not be part of the formula.

Our national survival is at stake. Wake the fu*k up!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Your comment seems to suggest that

because during the '40s African-Americans were frequently mistreated, abused, and sometimes murdered on account of their race, and because many Japanese-Americans were confined in internment camps (something that will be a stain on FDR's legacy forever), the US shouldn't have even criticized Hitler for the Holocaust, let alone waged war against him. What Kim has been doing in NK rivals what Hitler did. But Trump shouldn't criticize him because the US has done some bad things?

[bettyellen]

7. RW propaganda in the form of "whataboutism".

[oberliner]

9. That's the Trump argument

Trump defends Putin: 'You think our country's so innocent?'

https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/04/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin/index.html

[PaulX2]

10. Seems Many Of My Friends Here Missed The Point

The more we torture, and let the people who ordered the torture get away with their crimes, the less our "words" matter when we criticize a piece of human filth running NK.

The less we can change.

The sward swipes both ways.

There is 100,000 dead Iraqis that never did a thing to us.

We must keep things in perspective, and fight for justice.

No one here would expect anything but a photo op and a bunch of lies and propaganda from Trump.

Someone still has to fight for a better world, and we do every day. Lots of us here.

[Ferrets are Cool]

11. 100K....more like 1000K

There are almost a MILLION dead children, women and men in graves in Iraq right this minute because we invaded THEIR country based on lies. And the war criminals who ordered it are still free men.