John Bolton: Torture and Extreme Rendition whatever that is

[prrolg]

This is a good answer by Bolton. He shows his intellectual capacity which is extremely large has limits. The interviewer like most intellectuals are completely convinced that they can speak with the greatest expertise and competancy on any subject. And when confronted with a real intellect insist that he must agree. And insists that he must tow the line.

[prrolg]

Here is an interviewer whose father may have been slaughtered and mother may have been murdered if not for alot of violence done by America to Germany in WW2 making water boarding the greatest crime of the century. This is a trait in homo sexuality that I cannot stand.

[mikentosh]

This interviewer sounds like he enjoys extreme renditions up his ass....fuckin liberal pillow-biter....

[MrBullfrog9876]

Torture is barberic and is against the law in the USA and internation law ..... doesn't take a laywer and years of study to figure that out.

Ron Paul 2012!

[introvertical71]

Read Bolton's new book...

What it's Like to be Owned by the Military Industrial Complex.

[MrFangole]

It takes the UK and its hypocrites to talk about torture. Just maybe the UK fucktards should take a good look at their own history before taking the high road.

[underyourskindvd]

Strange people in powerful positions...

The interviewer was very good.

[911dispatcher]

"Yeah, we're in Wales."

I wonder if the interviewer EVER considered how utterly hypocritical those contemptuous words were in light of his ridiculous pressure on Bolton about the two issues that are JUST as irrelevant to Wales as the health care system.

[JakCei]

@911dispatcher Welsh soldiers have died thanks to American and British foreign policy.

[BludBaut]

@JakCei I hope ALL those soldiers who died (whether Welsh or otherwise) were conscientiously committed to their responsibilities and duties. It's a tragedy to die for a cause in which one does not believe. If so, then your opinion is irrelevant. If not, they should have dealt with it before they got in harm's way.

I shake my head at the presumptuous, without the intellect, authority or influence, who clamor to be heard, when in the final analysis, they're nothing but rabble-rousers.

[BludBaut]

@JakCei In America, we have an all volunteer army, which means, by implication, that all who died, died believing in what they were doing. Those who criticize the Allied foreign policy for the deaths of the soldiers are, in effect, spitting in the wind.

One needs to be very careful whom one chooses to hear. Many people are angry and bitter because they think the wrong thoughts and listen to the wrong people.

A critical life is a wrong life.

[JakCei]

@BludBaut Even if human beings may have died for completely the wrong reasons? Even if people volunteer to defend America and not die fighting for an elite tyranny? An unexamined life is not worth living. Isn't it a hallmark of American tradition to question one's government and hold them to account?

[BludBaut]

@JakCei You're living for the wrong reasons. How foolish of you, at your young and ignorant age, to think yourself qualified to examine the reasons people die. Dying is inevitable. Therefore, shouldn't you be giving significant thought to what you're supposed to be doing, since it's already obvious that life is transient?

Let me say it another way. You're judging national leaders where you have ZERO influence. Try judging yourself.

No, it's not. It's a hallmark of presumptuous arrogant rebels.

[JakCei]

@BludBaut Don't tell me how to live my life. You're favouring videos on Obama being born in Kenya but you criticise me for questioning Bush's war policy and how people may have actually died without a good enough reason? What gives you more rights than me?

[PurushaDesa]

I should say, the point at which we did become interested in the cesspit of American healthcare was when they started broadcasting bile about the morality and general competence of our National Health Service and the European stance on healthcare as a fundamental human right. Before then, the subject admittedly hadn't crossed our radar. Daniel Hannan prostituting himself on Fox News changed all that though.

[Chiangmai007]

@PurushaDesa Robert Wright does a great interview with John Polkinghorne on the meaningoflifedottv website that might interest you. At polkinghornedotnet there is a Q and A section that might interest you as well (from what is mentioned on your channel...)

[PurushaDesa]

@Chiangmai007

From the exchanges I've seen between Christopher Hitchens and Robert Wright, I can't say I was mightily impressed by him. (And on a less mature front, I have to concede his whining voice really grates! Not sure I could listen to him much longer.)

[Chiangmai007]

@PurushaDesa I understand. However, it wasn't so much Wright as much as Polkinghorne that I wanted to lead you to. That said, Wright's interviews with folks from many different worldviews are to be commended. He plays an important role in helping the various viewpoints get aired without the usual, polemical riff raff.

[PurushaDesa]

@Chiangmai007

Yeah, I could listen to Polkinghorne again. Seems like a smart guy who argues well whatever his position. Worth a look. Cheers.

[Chiangmai007]

@PurushaDesa

He's a remarkable man indeed. My familiarity with Wright was basically from a book and the website I recommended where he just interviews guests.  I was not familiar with his exchange with Hitchens, 'til now....so, yeah, that's a different format altogether...differing views represented rather than an interview to explore a guest's views. Enjoy.

[PurushaDesa]

@Chiangmai007

Sorry, I know this is a month old, but I just realised I said completely the wrong name. I didn't mean Mr. Polkinghorne (who, going by a user video description saying, "Clearly an educated man who uses logic, reason , knowledge, the scientific method, learning, experiment, observation etc. etc...then adds God on the end", doesn't sound encouraging). I was actually referring to Peter Florence, the man seen here interviewing John Bolton.

[Chiangmai007]

@PurushaDesa I appreciate that. I hope you take time to enjoy the depth of Polkinghorne's reflections on spirit and matter, questions of ultimate reality. Along with CS Lewis, I always find his writings satisfying to both heart and head. As for the interviewer here, he seems to fall into the same trap that Jeremy Paxton does. He appeals to eloquence and agenda in the hope that Bolton will be boxed in. Pretty adolescent really.

[PurushaDesa]

@Chiangmai007

To be fair, Florence wasn't asking him for an academic paper in Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. He was asking him what his gut reaction was. Here, Bolton doesn't look like someone waiting to build a more educated opinion. He just comes across as someone shirking an uncomfortable question to which he already knows the answer. He says he doesn't know the subject well enough to give gratuitous opinions, but then "It depends" is going to be a gratuitous enough response for many.

[Chiangmai007]

I understand your point. But I also look at my opinion on the subject and consider it to be evolving, in want of further research. That's a healthy position to take I should think--not an arrogant or evasive one. What defines torture, for example, is a wildly debated issue. And someone of Bolton's stature is wise to be nuanced in his response. Have you read any of his academic writings?

[ahmad3652]

@Chiangmai007 well he seems keen on making big statements about war with Iran without doing much research

[Freidlon7]

There is a very good case to suggest that John Bolton by evidence of many of his public utterances is mentally unstable. 'Right Wing intellectual' isn't that a contradiction in terms?

[jshabadoo]

Botlon is a good guy. Waterboarding is not torture. Give me a break.

[MattyJames25]

Bolton is a good guy. But waterboarding surely is torture: and we (the US) have sought the death penalty for anyone who inflicts it upon our soldiers in wartime.

[lapwiz]

The torture and ER were indeed lawyered to death.....the death of the American constitution. Bolton is a very articulate liar.

So effective are the lies of such individuals that they sold these big lies to the American people and both houses of congress. AEI is a nest for all these neocon intellectuals with the sole task of intellectualize american impirialism. Very dangerous people representing very dangerous interets.

[manoman0]

agree

[manoman0]

Yes, like he's crunching down on tears. A moment of weakness? Hard to say, it could also be some sort of twitch.

[asruge]

The thing about Bolton, like Rumsfeld, is that he's not dumb. Bush is dumb. Bolton and Rumsfeld are simply assholes.

[lapwiz]

Bush is a dumb asshole.

[Chiangmai007]

@asruge I don't think that's the case. With degrees from Harvard and Yale, as well as being a twice elected president, Bush proved to be an informed, principled and powerful leader. With an 80% approval rating in Africa and 60 million Muslims now working their way through the birth pangs of democracy, I'd say he's on the right side of history. But I realize you'd prefer Saddam, the Taliban, poverty & AIDS.

[davidbamford]

Up-front? You only have to watch this video to see that clearly, he's about as far removed from an 'up-front guy' as you could possibly find.

Kudos to Peter Florence for this, and it's a great shame Monbiot was stopped in his citizen's arrest bid!

[charlesvan13]

Is he supposed to be an expert on "torture and extreme rendition"? He is a former UN ambasidor. The CIA was involved in that, and destroyed some tapes. The left alternates between ignoring and admiring the CIA, as in the silly Plame leak fabrication.

[flybynight420]

He's not supposed to be an expert but he is a prominent representative of his country being asked what is actually an elemental question... Do you believe in torture under certain circumstances? The Geneva convention would say no. He clearly does agree with torture since he didn't rule it out under any circumstances. I wonder if he had to study the cases of American soliders being tortured before reaching a conclusion? Just another draft dodger with a war complex.

[flybynight420]

If his brains were dynamite he couldn't blow his hat off. Bolton makes Bush appear intelligent.

[liamleahy]

His lies make me sick. I can't believe they can even dish this rubbish straight-faced...