Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Condemn Torture

I can say with certainty that I am looking forward to a new administration... this group has proven itself to be incompetent (and worse) again and again, without apology. They seem to be trying to turn us into the monster so we can defeat a monster. Where is the hope and the faith and the love? ("...and the Cartoon Network turns into the News")
OK, let's get this straight....the conservative party of the most religious Christians in America approve of an unconstitutional, illegal invasion of a country halfway around the world for dubious reasons that turn out to be patently false, and they still defend the invasion as "the right thing to do".
Subsequent torture is brushed aside ("a few bad apples", "like fraternity initiation"), and White House officials, including the Vice President, lobby Congress to allow the CIA to torture prisoners held in secret captivity on foreign soil (as to avoid US laws). Let's step back for a second....this is America? The United States of America?
I didn't see torture as a part of the "shining city on a hill" that Reagan told us about. But this administration keeps weaseling around the torture issue, when it should be condemning it righteously....I mean these are conservative Christians after all, right? Seems to me that torture condemnation would be an easy issue to take a side on, seeing as how every other administration in US history has steadfastly stood against it. But not these guys....I can hear them now: "Hey, Cold War's over....we don't need to impress other countries with our free society and modern views on justice and torture. Geneva Convention? Doesn't apply to US. Playtime's over world, we're the boss now and if you f*** with us, we'll put you in a secret prison and torture your a**. Now, yer wid us or a'gin us, wassitgonnabe?"
This is our foreign policy.
If it's the oil, just tell us it's the oil and ....take it! Just be honest about it and get the job done. If it's not the oil, well, then, what are we doing? How does any of this help our interests? Do
we expect to kill every potential terrorist in the Middle East? How many would be enough? And how many American soldiers' lives are we willing to give up to do this?
I'm all about protecting the US from terrorists, I just don't believe that the war in Iraq has helped in this regard... if anything, it's made things worse. It''s been a giant misallocation of resources, sewing seeds that will haunt us down the road.
But it's easy to criticize....what's the solution? Well, I have a plan. Well, I have a first step I'd like to introduce anyway: Condemn Torture (for crying out loud!)