You’ve all no doubt heard that, a few days ago, the U.S. Congress caved in on the issue of torture, deciding not to prohibit its use by the Bush administration. This weekend, there have been several strong responses, but I don’t think that any has been more to the point than this “LA Times” opinion piece. Here’s a clip (courtesy Dan Gillotte):
…If in doubt, take any of the “alternative” methods that Bush wants to use on U.S. detainees and imagine someone using those methods on your son or daughter. If the bad guys captured your son and tossed him, naked, into a cell kept at a temperature just slightly higher than an average refrigerator, then repeatedly doused him with ice water to induce hypothermia, would that be OK? What if they shackled him to a wall for days so he couldn’t sit or lie down without hanging his whole body weight on his arms? What if they threatened to rape and kill his wife, or pretended they were burying him alive? What if they did all these things by turns? Would you have any problem deciding that these methods are cruel?
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I paid $2.06 for gas today at the downtown BP station … and commentators say it may drop another .05-.15 cents by Halloween!
The election.
Torture? Yah, let’s debate that, too, while the war rages on and 30 more (Sunni) people are blown to hell by the Mahkdi army (Shia).
Every time we show up with our guns and get our butts whipped by the locals …
Somalia, for instance … and our dead are dragged through the streets, and our captured troops are tortured … the White House changes the subject from What the hell are we doing in Mogadishu in the first place? to something like Inhumane Treatment or Torture.
Right now, Washington doesn’t want us to talk about the decision to go into Iraq … they want to sideline the issue and talk about torture … and not because what we’re doing at Abu Garib and Guantanamo and the other CIA black sites isn’t giving us info … but because we can’t stand thinking about our guys/gals getting the same deal somewhere in the bowels of Falluja or in a cave in Taliban territory.
Why don’t we get the hell out? Let’s get the military out of this mess and turn the War on Terror over to the FBI and CIA and Interpol … it’s a POLICE job not a military job. The Brits have proven that time and again. Terrorism is an international crime NOT a military issue.
It’s the War … the Economy … it’s Darfur … those are what we should be debating and working on, among other more important issues.
Torture by any definition is ALWAYS wrong, but it is a non-issue this election.
This is way, way beyond embarrassing…
The rate at which America continues to jump the shark is breathtaking.
Tonight, I am very grateful to California Senator Dianne Feinstein, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, and others who pushed to declassify the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report on the CIA’s Use of Torture.