If you can beat 'em, why join 'em?
Water boarding. Bamboo under the finger nails. Mutilation. Strangulation. Amputation.
Sound like a 3rd World torture chamber in a Tom Clancy novel? Or perhaps more chilling, something you might hear echoing down the halls of the US Congress or the venerated Supreme Court? BINGO
Right now, under the ever-nervous thumb of the Bush administration and the specter of a lost midterm election (which results in a hand-over of power in congress) the legislative branch of our government is sleazing around ways of making these and other unspeakable atrocities LEGAL! They want to amend our interpretation of the Geneva Convention article #3. That is the statute that universally governs how captured prisoners should be treated according to international law.
An accepted guideline obeyed in every conflict from WW2 on. From the fields of North Korea and the swamps of Vietnam, to the sandpits of Gulf War 1.
If this trashing of the statue occurs, the first noticeable affect will be the "reinterpretation" of the same laws by all of the other countries in the world we despise. Of note would be North Korea, Iran, Sudan and other stickily sweet spots around the world. No, in reality, as soon as we, the world's poster child for "the rule of law", start compromising our OWN moral values, it gives comfort and permission to some of the nastiest slime on Earth to act with a free hand. To capture our own citizens and troops and do inhuman, unspeakable things to them...when maybe they would've held back here and there.
Why do we respect the rule of law? Because we are the leaders of the CIVILIZED world... and that's what has made us the nation we are today. That is what will keep us afloat and eternally prosperous in the future. The reason despotic regimes around the world come and go every decade or so is because they DON'T respect the rule of law. And therefore lack the most basic bedrock of functional society.
Some would argue that our enemies already disregard morality, human dignity and the "rules." But our enemies will soon be vanquished and the threat they pose will be over forever. And the moral, righteous and humane hand of Americans will prevail. So why join them when we are certainly going to beat them? Why lower ourselves to the sub-human level of our enemies when we don't need to?
This conflict won't be simple. And the cost in lives and treasure will be high. But whatever the cost, we must hold fast to our sense of self identity, our morals and everything that makes us Americans. And not let our enemies succeed in turning us into them. We are above it. Morally, financially and spiritually. Because, like JFK said, "We do this not because it easy, but because it is hard."
Sometimes it's hard to be right...
Water boarding. Bamboo under the finger nails. Mutilation. Strangulation. Amputation.
Sound like a 3rd World torture chamber in a Tom Clancy novel? Or perhaps more chilling, something you might hear echoing down the halls of the US Congress or the venerated Supreme Court? BINGO
Right now, under the ever-nervous thumb of the Bush administration and the specter of a lost midterm election (which results in a hand-over of power in congress) the legislative branch of our government is sleazing around ways of making these and other unspeakable atrocities LEGAL! They want to amend our interpretation of the Geneva Convention article #3. That is the statute that universally governs how captured prisoners should be treated according to international law.
An accepted guideline obeyed in every conflict from WW2 on. From the fields of North Korea and the swamps of Vietnam, to the sandpits of Gulf War 1.
If this trashing of the statue occurs, the first noticeable affect will be the "reinterpretation" of the same laws by all of the other countries in the world we despise. Of note would be North Korea, Iran, Sudan and other stickily sweet spots around the world. No, in reality, as soon as we, the world's poster child for "the rule of law", start compromising our OWN moral values, it gives comfort and permission to some of the nastiest slime on Earth to act with a free hand. To capture our own citizens and troops and do inhuman, unspeakable things to them...when maybe they would've held back here and there.
Why do we respect the rule of law? Because we are the leaders of the CIVILIZED world... and that's what has made us the nation we are today. That is what will keep us afloat and eternally prosperous in the future. The reason despotic regimes around the world come and go every decade or so is because they DON'T respect the rule of law. And therefore lack the most basic bedrock of functional society.
Some would argue that our enemies already disregard morality, human dignity and the "rules." But our enemies will soon be vanquished and the threat they pose will be over forever. And the moral, righteous and humane hand of Americans will prevail. So why join them when we are certainly going to beat them? Why lower ourselves to the sub-human level of our enemies when we don't need to?
This conflict won't be simple. And the cost in lives and treasure will be high. But whatever the cost, we must hold fast to our sense of self identity, our morals and everything that makes us Americans. And not let our enemies succeed in turning us into them. We are above it. Morally, financially and spiritually. Because, like JFK said, "We do this not because it easy, but because it is hard."
Sometimes it's hard to be right...
posted by Brandon The Blogger @ 4:16 PM
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