Unauthorized but Acceptable Torture?

Donald Rumsfeld in his classically oxymoronic manner wove an interesting web of misperception today in front of a Senate committee investigating the prisoner abuses in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld defended military interrogation techniques in Iraq on Wednesday, rejecting complaints that they violate international rules and may endanger Americans taken prisoner.(for the full article click here)

Obfuscate. On the one hand the prisoner abuses were unauthorized, according to earlier statements by Rumsfeld, yet they are now acceptable because many of the techniques were vetted by lawyers:

Rumsfeld told a Senate committee that Pentagon lawyers had approved methods such as sleep deprivation and dietary changes as well as rules permitting prisoners to be made to assume stress positions.(for the full article click here)

This tactic by Rumsfeld is identical to the methods used to justify the invasion of Iraq. In the lead up to the invasion the Bush Administration repeatedly mentioned Saddam and Al-Quaeda in the same breath, implying a link that never existed. Here Rumsfeld uses oxymoronic language to say two different things: torture is bad, torture is acceptable. The whole intent being to create confusion and misunderstanding.

Who does this stupidity fool? I think Rumsfeld hopes it fools Americans. It certainly doesn't fool Iraqis. But it may create enough confusion amongst the American public, and possibly even the American media, to make it difficult to identify what Rumsfeld is really saying, and to identify what is really acceptable behaviour on the part of the American military.