Of course, YOU knew he was bullshitting all along that the torture techniques saved millions of lives. You knew he was waging an information war--now of course, Cheney signals that the program of which torture was merely the tiniest insignificant part, is what yielded the high value goods. The torture part was ancillary...

So all he was ever trying to do was give his handful of diehard extremist supporters some talking points to use in his public defense. You figured as much. Of course, the collateral victim in this act of political obfuscation is the discussion about how to engage jihadists and terrorists who cling to dangerous and bizarre belief systems, both foreign and domestic, in the manner that is most efficacious with respect to both learning what they know, and defusing them from further attempts to commit or conspire to commit violent acts of terorism.

Remarkably, the folks who seem to have had the greatest success with this are the Saudis, and not only do they have a consistent track record, but they have been at it for quite some time.

See Deprogramming Jihadis

It's clearly complicated, both socially, politically, and psychologically. Any young loser in Saudi Arabia can become a Jihadist and get instant heroic status, and that is a part of the problem. That is also why trying to deal with the problem using the old typical authoritarian ways of dealing with hostiles and renegades,  is probably the least effective way of defusing the situation. Violence and torture will reinforce the psychological framework that motivated the Jihadist in the first place, it will not only confirm all their notions about the evil natue of the infidels, but the very act of enduring this 'evil treatment' at the hands of the faithless will elevate them into that heroic martydom that they sought to begin with.  No good information can come from it, and no deradicalization, either. The only thing that comes from it is further recruitment back home.

Really, the question boils down to this: Do you want the violence to stop, or do you want  unending vendetta?

One view of capitalism is that it is the art of persuading you to open up your wallet. Obviously you care about the things you need, such as food, gas, and medicine, but you do not live by bread alone. Most of us give to causes we care about, and the more deeply we care the more we open up our wallets. If someone can figure out a way to make you care enough, you will give them money. You will listen to their radio programs. You will by their books. You will vote for their candidates. You will watch their TV shows. You will attend their public lectures. I have to find new strategies to make you care enough to keep your wallet open. My kids need braces. My yacht needs to go into dry dock.

That clever someone can grow very rich from all that demagoguery. They can get elected to office. They can publish best sellers, built broadcasting empires, create non profit organizations, tour the lecture circuit. You just have to find your target demographic and push their buttons and they will open their wallets. If one of the side effects of this is that your particular demographic occasionally becomes disturbed to the point where they can no longer restrain their violent tendencies--well, that's a question of personal accountability, after all. If I am in the business of selling alcohol and you are an alcoholic, well, that is your problem--here is your fifth of vodka.

My point is that to a very large extent, the industry of right wing demagoguery has become BIG CAPITALISM. It isn't simply about issues of policy, anymore. There is too much commercial organization and what marketing mavens call 'synergy'. Right wing demagoguery and pushing your buttons is a product, like milk. And the cows need to be milked, and the milk needs to be delivered. Why would anybody tune into Rush, or buy an Ann Coulter book, unless they had become a junkie seeking their fix? Yes, there is a similar pattern on the left. But it is a question of scale and degree. Who are the easily identifiable left wing demagogues living in high castles and driving around with their private security forces in their armored humvees? Not too many people on the left have grown rich exploiting the public's concern for old growth redwoods, coral reefs, and whales. There it is.

No, the fever swamp has been strategically filled to reach a specific target demographic. There is big money to be made off the fever swamp. It's low hanging fruit. Just take a serious look at the whole market ecology for 'issue related products' and observe the money flows, and you will see what I mean. That is why the demagoguery, like military adventurism will not go away. There is simply too much money to be made.

My point is a little abstract, I admit. But connect it to Rush, the Heritage Foundation, Right to Life orgs, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Michael Savage, G Gordon Liddy, Dobson, and so on, and the pattern repeats itself, over and over and over again. These people are not merely advancing an ideological agenda--they are accumulating capital. It's an industry.