In an appearance on Radio Free Europe on Sunday, General David Petraeus made it clear he supports President Barack Obama’s decisions to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and to put an end to the use of harsh interrogation techniques:
“I think, on balance, that those moves help [us],” said the chief of U.S. Central Command. “In fact, I have long been on record as having testified and also in helping write doctrine for interrogation techniques that are completely in line with the Geneva Convention. And as a division commander in Iraq in the early days, we put out guidance very early on to make sure that our soldiers, in fact, knew that we needed to stay within those guidelines.
“With respect to Guantanamo,” Petraeus added, “I think that the closure in a responsible manner, obviously one that is certainly being worked out now by the Department of Justice — I talked to the Attorney General the other day [and] they have a very intensive effort ongoing to determine, indeed, what to do with the detainees who are left, how to deal with them in a legal way, and if continued incarceration is necessary — again, how to take that forward. But doing that in a responsible manner, I think, sends an important message to the world, as does the commitment of the United States to observe the Geneva Convention when it comes to the treatment of detainees.”
It’s good to know at least one of the leaders of our Armed Forces stands on the side of doing things the right way…
Good for General Petraeus. I wonder if the far left will now apologize for claiming he was traitor???
Anon, I wouldn’t hold your breath. Too often folks on both sides of the aisle are quick to judge and slow to apologize.
I could not have said it any better Zach! Bring anything to mind Zach? Something personal you might want to say or do?
Jeff, I don’t recall ever calling Gen. Petraeus a traitor, and a quick search of my blog didn’t show any results for the term “traitor,” other than Anon’s comment above. Traitor’s a strong word, and unlike some, I’m loathe to casually throw it around.