Paying for Torture
Once George W. Bush went public with his concept that water boarding was not torture (in spite of the fact that the U.S prosecuted Japanese after WWII for just such a crime) the moral high ground of the War on Terror, already in contention, was entirely lost. How America ever got itself a government that threw overboard all the values upon which it is founded, including flying suspects to countries where torture is legal to be interrogated and setting up a prison camp on Cuban soil outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. Constitution, will be wondered at for generations to come. It will be seen as a moral low point; America’s tackiest hour.
The Labour government was perhaps caught unawares and did not think such things could happen. Or maybe Blair was so in thrall to his own deluded messianic crusade and that anything was allowed to pass. The coming enquiry may tell, or it may not. In any event the Coalition was wise to get shot of it all. For once money has been well spent, though for those whose jobs are going or whose welfare is cut, it will be a bitter pill to swallow. Blair’s legacy is one of the most catastrophic ever to be inflicted upon the British people.