First, Do No Harm

George H. W. Bush wanted to be remembered as the "education president."  I don't know if he achieved that goal, but it was a worthy one.

His son, George W. Bush, apparently wants to be remembered as the "torture president."

God only knows how president Jenna Bush will want to be remembered. The "nuclear winter" president?  The "mass extermination" president?  "President-for-life Bush?"

One only has to look at the record of executions in Texas while Bush was governor there, and the glee he took in them, to realize that he's not exactly claiming the moral high ground (well, he claims it, he just doesn't live up to the claim).  Now we're at a point where members of the United States Congress are actually discussing just how much torture is acceptable.

Of course, our torturers can't do their job without proper medical supervision--they're trained at "interrogation," not medicine.  So doctors have to toss aside their Hippocratic Oath and help out.  According to the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine, they are willing to do so on a pretty regular basis.

In opposing torture so publicly, Colin Powell makes some headway at regaining credibility he lost while testifying so forcefully on behalf of a known pack of lies, during the lead-up to Iraq.  He still has a long way to go, since so many lives were pointlessly lost (and continue to be lost) in that adventure.  But he's making baby steps.

John McCain is also making baby steps.  He knows that when election time 2008 comes around, no one is going to point to him and say "John McCain is against torture!  He hates America!"  So he can lead the fight in the Senate against changing the Geneva Conventions.  It would be more convincing if he had ever taken on Bush about his "signing statement" on the occasion of signing the McCain sponsored anti-torture legislation last year, but since he didn't, giving Bush carte blanche to ignore the legislation at will, he comes across now as a little disingenuous at best.

The America I grew up in wasn't a place where the government condoned torture, much less resorted to extreme legal wrangling to justify it (after the fact--the 14 people it was used on have already told us everything they're going to, and we're not capturing premium al Qaeda targets with any regularity whatsoever anymore).  I can barely believe we're having this conversation.

It wasn't al Qaeda that forced it on us.  It was George Bush.  We all know al Qaeda hates America... is there any doubt now that Bush does too?

Comments

[Jake]

I just got the tail-end of Keith O's interview with Jonathan Turley, the Constitutional lawyer. I got the impression that the president needs this legislation to cover his ass, since he is already a felon in the eyes of the world, and could well be in trouble here, as well. If he does get the legislation he wants, even a packed Supreme Court hasn't shown that it can turn that far away from the Constitution.

George W. Bush's contribution to America: "Waterboarding for fun and profit".

[Jeff]

That seems to be pretty much the case--we don't need it going forward, because at this point we're not rounding up enemy combatants on the battlefield. Most senior al Qaeda types lately have been killed, not captured. Instead the ones who are captured are small fries like the ones the Brits nabbed for the airline plot, who have maybe met with higher-ups a few years back but are not involved in operations other than their own (if that--one still has to wonder just how serious a plot that was).

Which means the reason Bush wants the Congressional authority--and NOW, not next week--is because those 14 prisoners who were transferred to Gitmo recently will be talking to the Red Cross, and when word gets out about how they were treated, he wants to be able to point to new legislation spelling out what's legal and say, "See? This is legal!" It won't really be legal retroactively, but it'll be good enough to get through the mid-terms.

Which is, of course, the other reason for the rush--to pin Democrats into the corner of either supporting a revolting bit of legislation, or fighting it and appearing "weak on terror" in the RNC's 30-second ads.

[Jake]

Jeff, just think if the Demos got back even the House. (Doubtful.) There would be impeachment proceedings, or at least a lot of investigation. If ever a president should be impeached, removed from office (and waterboarded), dis is dat guy.

The reason I think it's doubtful - the Repubs are going to go full out, playing the same old game. And I've yet to see the American people really get it. Hope i'm wrong. More are, but enough?

Also, the media is helping the Repubs. I've just ordered the book Lapdogs - about how the media gives Bush a pass. Can't wait to read it.

[Shiai]

More and more I recall the terrible words of a U.S. platoon leader in Vietnam, spoken after his unit had just burned an entire village to the ground: "To save the village, it became necessary to destroy it."

And I think we'd all be better off to remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, spoken in the midst of a much greater crisis than the 'War on Terror'...the American Revolution: "The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either."

[Jeff]

According to today's Publisher's Lunch:
"Al Gore signed with Penguin Press recently to write THE ASSAULT ON REASON,
asserting that 'the public arena has grown more hostile to reason,' and
that the political culture is blocked by an 'unwillingness to let facts
drive decisions.' The book is scheduled for May 2007."

Sounds like a much-needed discussion.

[jeff faggy]

Do no harm? Is'nt that from the Hippocratic oath? Doctors first and foremost should do no harm.Then why do liberals call baby murderers Doctors...odd huh?
As Obi wan told Annakin "dont do it Annakin, I have the high ground!" As long as you Godless savages kill babies I will always have the high ground.You people are evil and have turned a blind eye to all evil misdeeds.When this decadent life has left you and you have shaken off your mortal coil,it will become clear all too late how wrong you are.Burn

[Jeff]

Thanks for the well-informed and, ummm, typographically interesting contribution. Star Wars movies are definitely the right place from which to take your moral lessons, so keep it up.