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Try It, You'll Like It . . .

Via Think Progress, we learn that at a speech last night at the University of Colorado, former Attorney General John Ashcroft answered a question about his willingness to undergo waterboarding. He told his audience, “the things that I can survive, if it were necessary to do them to me, I would do.”

That answer is deranged in at least 20 ways, and I’ll think of 20 more as soon as I post this. But can someone please sit down and explain to the bright lights of the Bush administration, patiently, and like they are 7, that there is a difference between being willing to die for one’s country (and apparently Ashcroft is only willing only to all-but die for his) and the ways in which civilized humans treat their enemies? His effort to turn a serious question into a chance for sloppy braggadocio is astounding.

For one thing, Ashcroft didn’t do anything necessary to protect America. He sat out Vietnam (six student deferments and one occupational deferment). Moreover his DoJ colleague who apparently did allow himself to be waterboarded, acting head of the OLC, Daniel Levin, underwent the procedure in 2004. According to an ABC News report, Levin “found the experience terrifying and thought that it clearly simulated drowning,” then concluded that waterboarding was illegal torture “unless performed in a highly limited way.” He lost his job at Justice for that.

The most telling thing about Ashcroft’s non-answer is that it lays bare the central fallacy in Bush administration thinking about how to conduct their torture: The relevant question for these guys is never "what are the rules," but "how tough can I pretend to be while breaking them?"