For several weeks, we've been hearing a lot about how scared everyone was immediately after 9/11 and, therefore, how any of us would've supported torture at the time. Therefore the Bushies were justified in doing so. For example, Newt Gingrich to Greta Van Susterin on Friday:
The real point is there was a long period when the United States was very frightened about the danger of another attack. We'd lost, you know, 3,100 Americans, more than at Pearl Harbor. We had had an attack with anthrax that we didn't understand. We were genuinely worried about the possibility of a nuclear or other mass attack.
We were all scared, so torture and various other policies were okay. The classic fear monger argument.
But isn't this sort of like the excuse: Well, when I was beating my wife and kids with my belt, I was really drunk at the time. So how can you blame me for, you know, going a little crazy?
Disgusting.