WSJ: American WWII Vets Acted Like Nazis, Japanese

Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal, in what has to be one of the most far-reaching and morally twisted arguments supporting waterboarding ever witnessed, says, just for starters, this:

The death last week of Paul Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945, is an opportunity to revisit the debate about the strategic value and moral justification of the aerial bombardment of civilian targets in wartime. It also casts some light on the controversy surrounding Michael Mukasey's nomination to be the next attorney general of the United States.

You'll probably need time to let that sink in.

Got it? The pilot of the Hiroshima atomic bombing plane died last week, so - GO, ATTORNEY GENERALS FOR TORTURE! WE'RE IN A WORLD WAR JUST LIKE WORLD WAR TWO! GO TORTURE!

It declines in sense and decency from there. My reply, which might get posted there, who knows:

Let me see if I'm understanding Bret Stephens:

• The Allies bombed German cities in 1943

• We also bombed Japanese cities - two of them with nuclear weapons

• It is therefore right to for Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey to refuse to call waterboarding torture

Ow. Seriously - ow.

A quick something jumps out: By Stephens' argument, Mukasey should not call ANYTHING torture. Note this excerpt:

"...where opponents argue that the technique is unconscionable and inadmissible underany circumstances, even in hypothetical cases where the alternative to waterboarding is terrorist attacks resulting in mass casualties among innocent civilians."

Substitute "waterboarding" with any of the following: electrocution, stabbing in the eyes with ice picks, strangling suspect's family members, bamboo shoots up the fingernails, forced amputation, anal rape...

None of them do any damage to Mr. Stephens' "results" argument. Can he say whether this is how he feels about all these techniques? And if not, can he explain how waterboarding is different than the other techniques?

Also: Mr. Stephens might want to think twice about what he's saying about millions of American WWII veterans when he so casually asserts that they are guilty of "lowering oneself to the level of one's enemies." I'm quite sure the majority would disagree.