George W. Bush: We Do Not Torture! (Yeah, Right)
Robert Paul Reyes
November 13, 2005
"I am not a crook" President Nixon emphatically declared on Nov 17. 1973. Less than a year later the disgraced leader resigned on Aug. 9, 1974.
"We do not torture" President George W. Bush declared, in the final stop of his Latin American tour last week.
Battered by Hurricane Katrina, bogged down by Iraq, buffeted by the DeLay indictment, belittled for his failed Miers' nomination and beleaguered by Plamegate -- Bush's prestige is almost as battered as Nixon's before he resigned.
Dubya's "We don't torture" invokes the same cynicism as Tricky Dick's "I am not a crook."
"We do not torture" "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction." "Harriet Miers is the most qualified candidate for the Supreme Court." "The end of major combat in Iraq". Most of Bush's pompous pronouncements elicit incredulous laughter.
The inescapable fact is that America does torture, and the Bush administration is fighting a bill in Congress that would ban torture.
America outsources the torture of most of its suspected terrorist prisoners, it has recently been revealed that the CIA operates secret prisons in countries that have no qualms against torture. However our country does torture terrorist suspects in the part of Cuba where we exercise sovereignty.
Senator McCain sponsored a bill in the Senate that seeks to ban "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners in the detention of the US Government".
But Vice-President Dick Cheney has pleaded with the Senate to exempt the CIA from the law so agents can use aggressive techniques (read torture). And if the senators don't comply, Bush Jr. has threatened to use his power of veto to strike down McCain's law.
George W. Bush has long argued that the protection of detainees under the Geneva Conventions does not apply, since terrorists wear no uniform and abide by no wartime rules.
I am not an expert on international law, I don't know if detainees in Gitmo fall under the protection of the Geneva Conventions, but I do know that a democracy should not practice or condone torture, under any circumstances.
We let Bush get away with his mantra of "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction", and the consequence was a bloody quagmire in Iraq.
If we let Bush get away, with his lie of "We do not torture", the result will be loss of stature of America, in the eyes of the world.
"We do not torture" President George W. Bush declared, in the final stop of his Latin American tour last week.
Battered by Hurricane Katrina, bogged down by Iraq, buffeted by the DeLay indictment, belittled for his failed Miers' nomination and beleaguered by Plamegate -- Bush's prestige is almost as battered as Nixon's before he resigned.
Dubya's "We don't torture" invokes the same cynicism as Tricky Dick's "I am not a crook."
"We do not torture" "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction." "Harriet Miers is the most qualified candidate for the Supreme Court." "The end of major combat in Iraq". Most of Bush's pompous pronouncements elicit incredulous laughter.
The inescapable fact is that America does torture, and the Bush administration is fighting a bill in Congress that would ban torture.
America outsources the torture of most of its suspected terrorist prisoners, it has recently been revealed that the CIA operates secret prisons in countries that have no qualms against torture. However our country does torture terrorist suspects in the part of Cuba where we exercise sovereignty.
Senator McCain sponsored a bill in the Senate that seeks to ban "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners in the detention of the US Government".
But Vice-President Dick Cheney has pleaded with the Senate to exempt the CIA from the law so agents can use aggressive techniques (read torture). And if the senators don't comply, Bush Jr. has threatened to use his power of veto to strike down McCain's law.
George W. Bush has long argued that the protection of detainees under the Geneva Conventions does not apply, since terrorists wear no uniform and abide by no wartime rules.
I am not an expert on international law, I don't know if detainees in Gitmo fall under the protection of the Geneva Conventions, but I do know that a democracy should not practice or condone torture, under any circumstances.
We let Bush get away with his mantra of "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction", and the consequence was a bloody quagmire in Iraq.
If we let Bush get away, with his lie of "We do not torture", the result will be loss of stature of America, in the eyes of the world.
Print
Email
