Bill O’Reilly Goes After the Boss on Torture

Bruce Springsteen seems to have provoked the ire of commentator Bill O’Reilly by speaking out to say that torture is “un-American”.

O’Reilly’s blaring defense of torture (“In a perfect world, a noble nation like the USA would not need to submerge killers in water. But thousands of dead Americans have changed the rules.”) is so over the top that it might even sound discordant to the President and his defenders who continue to maintain – despite mounting evidence to the contrary — that the United States doesn’t actually use torture.

Make no mistake: it’s Springsteen – and not O’Reilly—who is in tune with the country on this issue. The majority of Americans oppose the use of torture. So do America’s current and former military leaders. Retired C.I.A. officers have discussed the danger posed by policies authorizing torture. And those O’Reilly labels as inhabiting “the dark world of the radical left” include officials who served in President Reagan’s Administration.

In this column, O’Reilly just can’t seem to hit any of the right notes.