Webb on “This Week”
By JR Hoeft | Sunday, May 17th, 2009 | PolicySen. Jim Webb appeared this morning on “This Week” and I have just one quick thought on his appearance.
He is in favor of keeping the detainees in Guantanamo, not moving them to Virginia, and trying them there as well. His very correct reasons are that the crimes the detainees are accused of committing did not occur on U.S. soil and that we have spent millions of dollars building a facility to house them, where there is adequate security.
Good job to Sen. Webb for representing Virgina’s interests.
Of course, I was mildly amused by Webb’s thoughts on interrogation. He said that as a Marine in Vietnam, he interrogated hundreds of detainees and that “torture doesn’t work.”
So, how would he know?
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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9 Responses to "Webb on “This Week”"
Sounds like he has some ‘torture’ experience under his belt… especially if you count forcing people to listen to his smarmy speeches (remember the one about how women should not be on Navy Ships or at Military academies… yeah, those were rough and seem to be forgotten).
I find it rather interesting you are commending Webb for his principled approach regarding detainees coming to the States, but want about his flip flops and the fact that his record is at almost odds with everything he said today. George should be commended for holding Webb to task for his positions while Bush was in the WH and his about face now that Obama is in. Have the facts really changed so much or simply just a transition of power. It goes to leadership and the Dems still are adjusitng to actually having to lead and not simply just be the opposition or agitator Party in terms of Washington.
This torture thing is a slippery slope I think for many in Washington and while the Dems were calling for such invesitgations when those original photos surfaced years ago they will pull back from it publically now of course.
The thing that I do not get about this new torture paradigm being spun is that if torture does not work or has not worked or if you align yourself to the belief it has never worked than why has torture been an integral part of every wartime campaign as a means of garnering information. I mean if it never has worked don’t you think we would not be having this debate in 2009. BTW, I think many Vietnam vets would differ on the intel garnered in the field by interrogations then no mater how one wants to define officially as torture.
I love how people want to put waterboarding these detainees in the same catagory as what POW’s experienced in WWII in the Pacific or Vietnam like John McCain. Yeah, I can see how simulated drowning equates to having virtually every bone broken in your body one by one.
Hoyt – let it go.
PS – to you and Jim, check out the Webb GI Bill. I got a briefing during my Reserve weekend – it’s fantastic. If you’ve got 6 years active post 9/11 and 10 years total in the miltiary – including reserve time – you can fully transfer the benefits to your child – and, this is the best part, there is no expiration date. Once transferred, the kid needs to use the benefits by age 26. But, they get the full benefits, including the E-5 pay for living expenses. I’ll be having my benefits transferred into Luke’s name this year – just want to make sure he’s taken care of.
Thank you Senator Webb. You’re doing a great job for the Vets!
Mark- that was in McCain’s GI plan long before Webb picked it up so give him the credit he deserves. In fact, many Senate Dems opposed the transferring of benefits to children/spouse last summer when this was first discussed. Again, a case where Webb (which is fine) has changed or altered or at the very least adopted new positions after stating other ones. Again, nothing wrong with the evolution of policy but Mccain deserves his do on this one.
Ok, Kudos to McCain and Webb. I don’t care who gets the credit. Regardless, it is fantastic to actually have a GI Bill worth something.
PS – I did a quick read on your waterboarding bit. Under all definitions prior to the W administration waterboarding was and is torture, and was an is a violation of U.S. Federal Law. What is so concerning is that W’s “lawyers” used their legal opinions not to provide legal advice based on law and stare decisis, but rather to justify that which those they served wanted to do. Note that the uniformed military professional attorneys never concurred with these civilian politicians and their horendous opinions.
I can not imagine a more dangerous percedent for our nation, or any democracy, than an Executive Branch that believes that neither national laws, ratified international agreements, which due to ratification become the law of the land, nor the Constitution applies to it, and would chater attorneys to justify the unjustifiable. Thank God our Republic survived intact.
Yes, Mark. You keep fighting for the rights, benefits and privileges of terrorists.
You remind me of the smarmy defense lawyer who helps a mass murder of children go free because the killer wasn’t read his rights at the proper moment.
There are a lot of ills in the world I’d like to solve. There are about 32,000 ahead of wondering how terrorists get treated.
You learn in the military and of course law school frankly that the way the legal defintion reads you “have to intend on torture” meaning you have to set out with the intent solely to harm or torture as the primary intent. This in terms of interrogation is not the intent in that interrogators do wish harm as much as the wish to break the individual down.
BTW did not John McCain admit at the convention that he “broke” under Vietnamese interrogations or in fact real torture so when people go around saying that torture does not work I left with the notion they are merely in denial given when of our heroes admitted that he was broken by such actions. For the record though you could NEVER equate what the liberals are trying to do by saying that waterboarding is even in the same vicinity as what McCain and others in Vietnam experienced. So I wonder if these liberal will stop at just the Bush folks and continue to hunt for all those in Vietnam who treated our folks in the manner they treated McCain or are they solely interested in simply bringing down of country even further and could could care less about those past events; afterall all those methods failed back then right?
[...] Frank Wolf, Bob Goolatte, Rob Wittman, and Eric Cantor, appealed to Gov. Tim Kaine to join them, Sen. Jim Webb, Sen. Mark Warner, and others in opposing the transfer of detainees to [...]
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