My pal Pat Berry has decided to keep a close watch on Wally Herger, the rep from California's Second Congressional District, who is Pat's congresscritter. So Pat's sending him letters, asking him to answer for the government's mess in Iraq — and other messes — and blogging the congresscritter's form responses, with detailed, hyperlinked critiques. Pat doesn't expect Herge to stop talking bullshit as a result of being fact-checked, but he has high hopes for being a prominent search-engine result for the query "Wally Herger".
While there are no obvious points of contention here, it is meant to misdirect us from the fact that prisoner torture is wrong by pointing out that people want to hurt us. There will never be a time in history when somebody, somewhere will not want to hurt the United States or see us fail. In no way does this condone the torture of prisoners. It never has and it never will. Trying to associate the investigation with American weakness is a dirty trick. Compassion and a show of humanity is not weakness, nor is showing concern for a group of people other than ourselves. Also we must not let the fact that good things happen shield us from the horrors that happen in Iraq, they must be dealt with. For those honestly curious about the progress being made in Iraq, USAID has a site with extensive records and archives.
