I should have just read the news today to get a good rant going. Here's an article about Bush's latest decision regarding the torture of alleged terrorists.
Sen. John McCain was right to oppose torture of any kind as a stain on the reputation of the United States abroad. The one thing we've attempted to maintain, in government and in popular culture for decades, is that we're the 'good guys.' Somehow, I think that seeing a real life demonstration of waterboarding, or being told that sexual abuse is now not allowed (that fact that ANYONE calling themselves a 'good guy' would see that as an acceptable means of obtaining information is beyond me) serves to undermine this reputation.
The Viet Cong could do whatever they wanted to their prisoners because they didn't need to fight a PR battle. We do. And the CIA interrogation program, which is quite small, simply isn't worth the loss in international respect and, more to the point, domestic respect for the actions of the United States.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
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2 comments:
every government is hypocritical no matter where you look. Its easier to see it here because we live here. If we were to give 'justice' and be 'good', words which have varied meanings; most of the people being 'tortured' deserve much less in life. It all happens when too much power is in the hands of too few.
this last part is true, which is one reason I'm glad the Congress is now Democratic, even though they've been pretty much less than useless in practical terms thus far.
Also, I don't agree that every government is hypocritical. The example I used was deliberate - they weren't being hypocritical, they were justifying what they were doing in their own way because they had no good reputation to uphold. And regardless of what else we do, invading without proper justification or backing notwithstanding, incidents of secret torture are absolute poison to our reputation.
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