I wrote this letter to the editor of the South Florida paper Sun-Sentinel and it was published on june 7th. Already looking online, the responses while not surprising are in some ways strangely depressing
Nelson's vote against cut in CIA budget a betrayal
Floridians and indeed all moral Americans have been betrayed, and your paper has failed to adequately provide coverage of this betrayal. Florida's Democratic senator, Bill Nelson, was recently the single Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee to vote with the Republicans against a substantial cut in the budget of the Central Intelligence Agency's secret interrogation program for terrorism suspects.
His vote led to the failure of this measure. We should all be outraged by this endorsement of torture and support of techniques that have lost us international respect and dignity. The images of Abu Ghraib will forever be ingrained in our conscience, but imagine how much worse the torture done in secret undisclosed locations must be.
This legislation would have put actual procedure in line with the Army Field Manual by banning the use of physical pressure or pain, but still would have allowed for extraordinary circumstances by allowing the president to order the use of torture. In this way, this cut would have ensured for safety in the utterly rare case of the smoking gun, while ensuring worldwide respect and an accord for international law and human dignity. Shame on you, Sen. Nelson.
I wish I could have had more words to elaborate on why torture is universally considered a waste of time, and why ticking time bomb situations are so rare while false information extracted from torture is oh so common. However, the paper has a general word count limit for letters. Still, I feel that I resonably was able to present my dismay at this awful vote and the impact it has on our respect for international law and the indeed the rule of law itself.
Unfortunetly, the responses it has recieved to date on the Sun-Sentinel web site are depressing and deeply show how convincing the rhetoric of the war on terror has been in making american's forget their moral compass and their social mores.
A few key excerpts
HEY MIDDLE AMERICA WRITES
once again the treasoncratz of broward show who they really support.
Got to love how all critics of policy are automatically labelled supporters of terrorists
now let's compare that to mutlating and burning the bodies of some of OUR servixemen and the reaction from the treasoncratz
Basically he says Abu Graib's torture was not so bad and that we should hold ourselves to the standards of those we are fighting rather than those we have agreed upon internationally and internally. Such a disgusting idea.
Sundown writes
can guarantee you that our enemies do not respond to or respect weakness! They only understand force and they will not go away until they are put down!
The nebulous term "our enemies" is dangerous in and of itself. It is a typical example of othering so common in our national discourse. The rest of this bit is even more frightening. Is it not even considered that our use of force and torture creates more enemies rather than less? Is there even a shred of evidence that force can ever work in putting down our enemies?
After giving me the typical ticking time bomb scenario ( which I adress in my letter by saying this act of congress would have allowed the president to waive in extraordinary circumstances the traditional laws) he writes
I know in our country all people have a right to their opinion but if you do not want to support your country, right or wrong in time of war, perhaps you would be happier elsewhere!
It's hard to believe that after years of the Iraq war quagmire people still can equate criticism of our countries actions with hatred for the country. One would think that the nation would learn that those who criticized all along were all too right and that they were the truly patriotic ones. Alas, the patriotism of dissent continues to be questioned.
After this, there are more comments urging me to leave America and move to France before two posters degenerate into a flamming battle with one urging the hanging of George W. Bush.
The level of poisoned discourse is utterly frightening. People seem unable to rationally discuss without resorting to name calling or taunting. Indeed, overall this is another example of the faliure of reason in our national forums and mediums...It is truly all quite sad