a strike against torture
Congratulations* to the Senate Armed Forces Committee for taking a stand against torture and against trials where the defendants cannot see the evidence being presented against them. It makes me sick that this is even a question in the United States. John McCain, John Warner, and Lindsey Graham (hardly a bunch of bleeding hearts) along with Susan Collins defied their party's leader and de facto Torturer-in-Chief on this one, as did all the Democrats on the committee.
McCain -- who is after all the only current US senator to have been the victim of torture -- has it exactly right. Even apart from being completely at odds with what our country should stand for, torture is ineffective AND is not only incredibly damaging to our image, is also degrading and demoralizing for our American intelligence and military personnel involved. Except for the ones who actually LIKE torturing, who should never be allowed anywhere near a prisoner nor in a position of authority.
It's also scandalous that the White House forced a bunch of military lawyers to send a letter basically renouncing their earlier opposition against show trials where defendants cannot see the evidence against them.
*I wrote this on Friday AM but for some reason it never appeared.** I didn't realize that Bush had actually gone to the Hill to lobby Republicans to support his "context-sensitive" permissable-torture bill. Wilson went to Europe to make peace. Eisenhower went to Korea to see what the state of the war there was. Bush went to the Capitol to expound on the merits of torture. Wow.
**Aha, now it HAS appeared, with the Friday AM date-stamp! The Internet is a strange place.
McCain -- who is after all the only current US senator to have been the victim of torture -- has it exactly right. Even apart from being completely at odds with what our country should stand for, torture is ineffective AND is not only incredibly damaging to our image, is also degrading and demoralizing for our American intelligence and military personnel involved. Except for the ones who actually LIKE torturing, who should never be allowed anywhere near a prisoner nor in a position of authority.
It's also scandalous that the White House forced a bunch of military lawyers to send a letter basically renouncing their earlier opposition against show trials where defendants cannot see the evidence against them.
*I wrote this on Friday AM but for some reason it never appeared.** I didn't realize that Bush had actually gone to the Hill to lobby Republicans to support his "context-sensitive" permissable-torture bill. Wilson went to Europe to make peace. Eisenhower went to Korea to see what the state of the war there was. Bush went to the Capitol to expound on the merits of torture. Wow.
**Aha, now it HAS appeared, with the Friday AM date-stamp! The Internet is a strange place.
posted by Don Q Blogger at 5:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home