Tortured Responses on Torture

Even after seven years of the long night of the GW Bush administration, I can still be shocked by how low he is wiling to go. His latest and continuing embrace of torture just makes me sick. This mini-item from Democracy Now, “Bush to Veto Bill Outlawing CIA Use of Waterboarding”:

President Bush is expected to soon veto a bill that would have required the CIA and all intelligence services to abide by the same interrogation standards as outlined in the US Army Field Manual. The Army manual specifically bans waterboarding, mock executions, the use of electric shocks, beatings, forcing prisoners to perform sexual acts and depriving prisoners of necessary food, water or medical care. President Bush says the Army rules are too restrictive.

This is the same man who claims to be strongly influenced by his Christian faith. Did he maybe skip the sections in the Bible about the golden rule, turning the other cheek, and treating even those at the very bottom of the social ladder with utmost respect. Harumph–endorsement of torture strikes me as within the impeachable category of “high crimes and misdemeanors”!

Oh, and didn’t occur to him that he is putting American servicemen and servicewomen at severe risk? If we torture those we capture, what happens when our people are captured?

Meanwhile, a perceptive piece by Marty Kaplan in Huffington Post on this issue:

When Dana Perino told the White House press corps that the Field Manual is “perfectly appropriate… for young GIs, some so young that they’re not even able to legally get a drink in the states where they’re from,” but not for trained intelligence agency “professionals… with an average age of 40,” it’s a wonder she wasn’t asked a follow-up about how tall you have to be to ride the Constitution.

The same piece has some speculation on why John McCain, long a champion of treating prisoners right, and himself an ex-POW, is now willing to go along with torture.