Let me preface this by informing our readers that I am currently emitting a false gasp, immediately followed by a fake astonished look. Apparently senior members of Congress responsible for intelligence oversight, including Democrats and including Speaker Pelosi herself, were briefed way back in 2002 on waterboarding and other torture techniques (H/T: Instapundit). Their response? Tacit approval from most, and concerns that interrogation techniques weren’t harsh enough from some.
Color me shocked, except that I’m not. These are, after all, the same Democrats who joined Republicans by an overwhelming majority in voting to give President Bush the authority to go to war with Iraq. It was only after Iraq became politically unpopular that these same Democrats turned against the war, with some (such as Hillary Clinton) coming extremely late to the anti-war party. Democrats supported the war when it was politically beneficial to them and only turned against it when the tide of public opinion turned. Why is anyone surprised to see the same in regard to torture?
Of course, they have excuses. “The environment was different then because we were closer to Sept. 11 and people were still in a panic.” That’s the one they’re going with. It’s not a very good one, when one considers that the public expects their leaders to be the calm ones in times of national crisis. We should be looking for leaders who even in times of national emergency will keep these facts in mind:
Torture is against international laws that we have bound ourselves to follow by treaty.
Torture is against our own federal laws.
Torture is against the law of God and the moral law written on every human heart.
Engaging in the torture of prisoners exposes our service members to the possibility that other nations, now abiding by international law, will follow our example and cease to do so.
Aside from all this, torture does not work. It pressures prisoners to tell interrogators whatever it is they believe they want to hear, leading to shoddy intelligence – perhaps the same kind of shoddy intelligence that led us to war in Iraq, or perhaps shoddy intelligence with far graver consequences.
These are the facts. These were the facts on September 10, 2001, on September 11, on September 12, and every day thereafter. These facts did not suddenly materialize as if from a vacuum when the issue of torture became politically beneficial to Democrats. They were the facts before, and those who are spouting these facts now should have known them then and acted on them. “We’re sorry, but it was a different time” – this is not a legitimate excuse. It was not a legitimate excuse in regard to Iraq and it certainly is not a legitimate excuse in regard to torture.
America deserves leadership that won’t revert to the lowest common denominator of human existence – that is, unbridled fear that pays no heed to reason and morality – in times of national emergency.
