A Government of Monsters

By Scott Horton

Paul Krugman:

Before I do some economics posts, I think I ought to say something about the torture memos — namely, that there is now no way to view the people who ruled us these past 8 years as anything but monsters. We had all these rationalizations of torture over the “ticking clock” and all that — then we learn, for example, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in one month.

Monsters, yes. More precisely, war criminals. And they hold fast to the propriety of using the rack and thumbscrews. But we’re supposed to forget about it and just move on. The answer is: truth out first. Accountability measures second. We still have a very long way to go on the first score.