'What is the best way we can sit down and deliberately create policies and procedure which are immoral, cruel, inhuman, brutal, illegal, unconstitutional, and will present an unfavorable view of our country throughout the world?'
Do you really believe that citizens of America who are U.S. government employees, and elected and appointed government officials - ranging from the President, to attorneys general, to interrogators in the field - really woke up some morning and said that to themselves? Do you really believe that?
The (conspicuously partisan) calls for criminal prosecutions, civil suits, and review of appointees of the Bush administration, and employees of the citizens of the United States, for unconstitutional and illegal acts of torture are growing. National (partisan) 'outrage' at the decline of moral, ethical, and behavioral standards of the government as a result of 'brutal' treatment of detainees is on the rise. Major media using words and phrases such as '"torture flights", 'cruelty, sadism, brutality, and torture' in stories on the subject is rampant.
What is missing in these accusations and invective? Missing are specifics on what laws have been broken, which elements are unconstitutional, and what is torture? No such definitions have been presented, forthcoming, or offered. Similar unfounded and undefined accusations against groups or individuals in the private world would find the accuser in civil court for liable and slander. Is the only tool available to define these acts as illegal or immoral to have the President retroactively redefine the previous administration's activities as void and illegal, and then prosecute, ruin, sue, disbar, and destroy the individuals involved in the policies and actions which the new administration finds objectionable?
President Obama, the media, the voices in Congress, the political agenda groups of the left, and the American voters who actually believe these interrogative actions, policies, and procedures to be illegal should step forward NOW and specifically define what has been done wrong in terms of legality and constitutionality, whom has done it, and specifically define the definition of 'torture'. If they cannot, then the issue should be dropped and they should step aside.
To continue on this course without specifics will heighten the perception that the accusers are politically motivated witch hunters, bent on revenge, hate, and retribution for eight years of political and ideological frustration ... perhaps beginning with anger over the impeachment process against President Clinton and the following frustrating Bush/Gore election process. The perception that it was not enough to vote the hated Republicans out and gain control of the White House and Congress, but that the blood of the losers is also necessary, will gain in magnitude ... and potentially ignite the most politically and culturally divisive movement in our country's history.
President Obama has apparently ruled out actions or prosecutions against CIA interrogators in the field on this matter, saying only that we should "learn' from it. However, he has clearly left the door open to investigate, and possibly prosecute Bush administration officials and appointees who designed and orchestrated the enhanced interrogation process ... and thereby conveniently politically pander to the pressure of the left. Using nuanced wording and subtleties, he has clearly left the door open for others to do the 'dirty work' of investigating, while washing his own hands of the stigma of approving the prosecution of those who chose to defend the country. Hardly the mark of a leader
If the President is embarrassed, ashamed, or feels guilty about the country that he was hired and elected to represent, and feels the need to do world wide apology tours as a result, then so be it. But as the leader he claims to be, he should stick to his stated policy, be a leader, and condemn the voices of revenge ... rather than cater to them for political expediency by throwing to the wolves the citizens who defended his country in good faith and to the best of their abilities.
Given that the President now deems declassification of interrogation documents acceptable for political gain, you and I (American citizens) should now demand that he release classified documents detailing the results of what was accomplished by those interrogators .... and the policy makers who created and authorized those interrogations.
My thanks goes to the men and women involved in that fight. We should expect and demand of President Obama to do the same and stand behind and defend those men and women ... who are at any level of government service.
* Click here for some thoughts on the definition of torture*
