I think it is naive to believe that you can't effectively fight terrorism while also upholding the Constitution. Or that we are fighting for anything meaningful if we don't uphold the Constitution during the times where it actually matters and those rights are in jeapordy.
I also think it is naive to believe that engaging in questionable military interrogation practices doesn't potentially create a greater risk of terrorist attacks in the future by providing a rallying point for terrorists. The things that happened at Abu Gharib were a terrorist dream. They could be used to convince even rational people that the United States was just as evil as the terrorists claimed.
You can't win the war if all you are concerned about is winning individual battles. You can win that battle but still lose the war.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
