It's easy - and proper- to mock the portentous type of journalism American newspapers publish to impress the Pulitzer Prize judges, but sometimes it does work. At its best the reader is treated to a sort of journalism that scarcely exists anywhere else in the world.
The Washington Post's series on Dick Cheney's accretion of power and mania for secrecy is one such example. Today's episode focuses on how Cheney's office was instrumental in creating the rules governing the treatment of detainees captured in Afghanistan and Iraq and, consequently, how Cheney must be held responsible for the enormous moral and public relations disaster that ensued:
The vice president's lawyer advocated what was considered the memo's most radical claim: that the president may authorize any interrogation method, even if it crosses the line of torture. U.S. and treaty laws forbidding any person to "commit torture," that passage stated, "do not apply" to the commander in chief, because Congress "may no more regulate the President's ability to detain and interrogate enemy combatants than it may regulate his ability to direct troop movements on the battlefield."
This is also right:
"The only person in Washington who cares less about his public image than David Addington [Cheney's lawyer] is Dick Cheney," said a former White House ally. "What both of them miss is that ..... in times of war, a prerequisite for success is people having confidence in their leadership. This is the great failure of the administration -- a complete and total indifference to public opinion."
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