What To Do About Yoo

What To Do About Yoo

Regarding the recently declassified John Yoo torture memo, Atrios says:

I’m not entirely sure why there’s something about John Yoo and our nation’s fond embrace of torture which bothers me even more than do Dick Cheney and George Bush. Obviously they’re the ones who have ultimate responsibility for all of this stuff, but there’s something peculiarly evil about not just doing bad stuff but providing elaborate justifications for it.

I agree. But I think the other reason the Yoo situation is particularly enraging is that after he he left his job in the administration, he was rewarded with a tenured post at one of the nation’s finest law schools. A perch from which he can continue to play a role in the nation’s discourse just like any other legal academic. But at what point does advocating for, well, war crimes, get you barred from teaching law, or at the very least, being part of polite society?

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Regarding the recently declassified John Yoo torture memo, Atrios says:

I’m not entirely sure why there’s something about John Yoo and our nation’s fond embrace of torture which bothers me even more than do Dick Cheney and George Bush. Obviously they’re the ones who have ultimate responsibility for all of this stuff, but there’s something peculiarly evil about not just doing bad stuff but providing elaborate justifications for it.

I agree. But I think the other reason the Yoo situation is particularly enraging is that after he he left his job in the administration, he was rewarded with a tenured post at one of the nation’s finest law schools. A perch from which he can continue to play a role in the nation’s discourse just like any other legal academic. But at what point does advocating for, well, war crimes, get you barred from teaching law, or at the very least, being part of polite society?

There simply seems to be no recriminations for anyone who helped plan and execute this seven-year-long parade of moral abominations.

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