George W. Bush did a lot of terrible, criminal things during his presidency, but arguably the single most immoral thing he did was sanction and normalize the use of torture. Guess what? That's not how he sees it.
Speaking to the Economics Club of Grand Rapids, Michigan, the former president admitted to a criminal act and evinced no guilt:
“Yeah, we waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,” Bush said. “I'd do it again to save lives.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. Thanks to our nation's proud embrace of torture, we learned of al-Qaeda's completely imaginary plot to assassinate the pope. So, hell, if it'll keep Americans safe, Bush will personally strip, diaper, shackle, and almost-drown KSM 183 more times, until the bastard finally admits to killing Natalee Holloway and blowing that call on first base last night
We were originally told, by defenders of "enhanced interrogation," that We Don't Torture. But waterboarding is unquestionably torture. So now we're just told "torture worked." Replacing Orwellian lies with amoral honesty (of a kind) does not really feel like a step in the right direction.
(Bush is also not sorry about the whole Iraq war thing.)
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