I failed to link to it when it came out, but this editorial from the Washington Post (again with the WaPo fixation!) was important, I think: End the abuse.

Let’s be clear: Mr. Bush is proposing to use the first veto of his presidency on a defense bill needed to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan so that he can preserve the prerogative to subject detainees to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In effect, he threatens to declare to the world his administration’s moral bankruptcy.

Now, that’s my kind of clarity.

Bob Herbert, writing behind the NY Times’ for-pay barrier, continued the discussion in his column last Monday, which I can now link to thanks to its having been liberated by the good little pirates at truthout.org: Who isn’t against torture?

Senator McCain met last week with Capt. Ian Fishback, a West Point graduate who was one of three former members of the 82nd Airborne Division to come forward with allegations, first publicly disclosed in a report by Human Rights Watch, that members of their battalion had routinely beaten and otherwise abused prisoners in Iraq. In a letter that he sent to the senator before the meeting, Captain Fishback wrote:

“Some argue that since our actions are not as horrifying as al-Qaida’s, we should not be concerned. When did al-Qaida become any type of standard by which we measure the morality of the United States? We are America, and our actions should be held to a higher standard, the ideals expressed in documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”

Senator McCain and Captain Fishback get it. Some people still don’t.

This entry was posted by jbc on Friday, October 14th, 2005 at 5:05 am and is filed under george_w_bush, the_usa, war. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.