Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Arguments on Torture

From the New York Times today:

"As the Bush administration completes secret new rules governing interrogations, a group of experts advising the intelligence agencies are arguing that the harsh techniques used since the 2001 terrorist attacks are outmoded, amateurish and unreliable.”

That argument is completely irrelevant.
Dick Cheney in his speech at West Point on May 28th:

"These are men who glorify murder and suicide. Their cruelty is not rebuked by human suffering, only fed by it. They have given themselves to an ideology that rejects tolerance, denies freedom of conscience and demands that women be pushed to the margins of society. The terrorists are defined entirely by their hatreds, and they hate nothing more than the country you have volunteered to defend."

That kind of argument in favor of torture is also irrelevant.
George Washington, founding founder of our country, on torture:

"Torture is a terrible and monstrous thing, as degrading and morally corrupting to those who practice it as any conceivable human activity…"

That argument is relevant.

1 comment:

  1. Darn right.

    As I've argued in the past, the singularly most significant and despicable act of the Bush administration is that America, the United States of America, tortures prisoners.

    That shame is brought to every single American by Bush voters and Bush supporters.

    And no amount of "the other side does it too" will ever make it right.

    America, my country, the nation I love, tortures prisoners.

    It disgraces every one of us, that this simple statement is true.

    America tortures prisoners.

    Yuck.

    ReplyDelete