Torture isn't our style
Some former Bush administration officials, from VP Dick Cheney on down, are screaming bloody murder over President Obama's decisions to not only ban torture as a means of interrogation, but to release details of the memos and techniques they were using during the Bush years.
They claim it threatens national security and not a one is apologetic about using torture.
They're wrong on both counts.
First, the use of torture has, at best, limited rewards. In most cases, the victim will tell interrogators whatever they want to hear in order to stop it. That doesn't mean what they're saying is accurate. And all the information they allegedly got hasn't turned into convictions in the special tribunals they set up, which allowed information obtained in torture to be used. So its value can't be anywhere near what they're claiming.
And a good interrogator doesn't need it in the first place.
But most importantly, and this is the point these guys just don't seem to ever get, is that this country is supposed to stand for something. It is supposed to stand for our efforts to seek the highest levels of the ideals of man. We are supposed to set the standard and serve as the example to all other nations.
Unfortunately, those former officials dragged us down to the level of the Saddam Husseins and Kim Jong-Ils of the world. But the ends rarely justify he means. Instead, the means usually exemplify the ends.
We are better than that, both as a people and as a nation.
Obama seems to understand that, and is attempting to restore our position as the standard-bearer for the world, and remove the black eye the previous administration gave us.
-- Kelly Everitt
- -- Posted by twilcox1978 on Wed, Apr 22, 2009, at 4:58 PM
- -- Posted by Eagle_eye on Wed, Apr 22, 2009, at 11:11 PM
- -- Posted by small town on Thu, Apr 23, 2009, at 6:40 PM
Posting a comment requires free registration:
- If you already have an account, follow this link to login
- Otherwise, follow this link to register