Let's not judge before all the facts are in

One of my favorite movies is Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove: or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb" which I believe is one of the greatest satires in the history of film (go rent it today!). It doesn't take much for me to see parallels between real life and that film. For some reason, Rumsfeld's attitude toward the torture scandal in Iraq has me thinking of the following exchange from the film: President Merkin Muffley has just been told that an Air Force General, Jack T. Ripper, has ordered his wing of B-52s to drop nuclear weapons on the USSR without authorization. He is being briefed by the commander of the Strategic Air Command (SAC - the branch of the air force responsible for nuclear weapons), General Turgidson.

"Turgidson:

The duty officer asked General Ripper to confirm the fact the he had issued the go code and he said, 'Yes gentlemen, they are on their way in and no one can bring them back. For the sake of our country and our way of life, I suggest you get the rest of SAC in after them, otherwise we will be totally destroyed by red retaliation. My boys will give you the best kind of start, fourteen hundred megatons worth, and you sure as hell won't stop them now. So let's get going. There's no other choice. God willing, we will prevail in peace and freedom from fear and in true health through the purity and essence of our natural fluids. God bless you all.' Then he hung up. We're still trying to figure out the meaning of that last phrase, sir.

Muffley:

There's nothing to figure out General Turgidson. This man is obviously a psychotic.

Turgidson:

Well, I'd like to hold off judgment on a thing like that, sir, until all the facts are in.

Muffley:

anger rising General Turgidson, when you instituted the human reliability tests, you assured me there was no possibility of such a thing ever occurring.

Turgidson:

Well I don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip up sir.

Muffley:

I want to speak to General Ripper on the telephone, personally.

Turgidson:

I'm afraid that's impossible, sir.

Muffley:

General Turgidson, I am becoming less and less interested in your estimates of what is possible and impossible. "

I'll conclude with a gratuitous Simpsons reference to keep Bell Curve happy. "Take that Maynard G. Crebbs!" (said by Homer as he rode a nuclear bomb down towards a couple of bongo playing hippies in a park)