Domestically the United States lets many “guilty” go free given the need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the perpetrator committed the crime. Internationally the situation flipped post 9-11. Now suspected terrorists are nabbed on the basis of hearsay or even mistaken identity, subjected to “tough” interrogation methods that caused several prisoners (later found innocent) to say anything to stop the pain or save their family from veiled threats.
President Bush wants Congress to put a rubber stamp on what Americans would never tolerate. It’s being marketed as removing the CIA from “legislative purgatory” and returning “effective interrogations of suspected terrorists”. The White House wordsmiths worked hard on these statements.
Bush is upset that a court struck down his Executive Decree permitting the use of evidence from banned interrogation methods. It required the President to comply with the War Crimes Act. This was not any court, but the Supreme Court with a conservative majority. So rather than blame his recently stacked court, Bush’s wordsmiths turn toward the one group with a lower approval rating than the President, Congress. Our nation’s CEO believes Congress to be at his beckon call and should immediately pass legislation to “fix the problem”.
How can the United States claim its leadership position in promoting human rights when it is the first nation in the world to lower the bar on treatment of prisoners? Why does it insist on using banned methods that don’t produce reliable information?
A Time poll showed 15 percent of Americans favor the use of torture even when against the law. What happens when one of these people are elected President, Vice President, Senators, or Representatives? Evidence shows Bush & Cheney strongly in the pro-torture camp (using the worldwide definition, not their skinnied down version). Where will our legislators stand, with traditional elements of American justice or with “the ends justify the means” sadists, as the end is unreliable information?
Bush wants to create a literal hell on earth for suspected terrorists. He is mad that detainees get to spend a little time in purgatory. The Son knew the Kingdom of Heaven already to be here and now, for those who can see. Blinded by rage and hatred, terrorists cannot see. It appears neither can our President or Vice President. They drag America’s credibility on human rights in the world community down, down, down.
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