It's a Not-So-Bad Day to Be an American

I don't often have positive political news to report here. I don't have positive personal news to report very often either, but that's not important right now...

Anyway, some politicians, in the U.S. Senate of all places, actually voted the correct way yesterday on an important issue. Even Republicans. Yeah, I know, I was shocked, too. But this is for real.

The Senate defied the White House yesterday and voted to set new limits on interrogating detainees in Iraq and elsewhere, underscoring Congress's growing concerns about reports of abuse of suspected terrorists and others in military custody.

Forty-six Republicans joined 43 Democrats and one independent in voting to define and limit interrogation techniques that U.S. troops may use against terrorism suspects, the latest sign that alarm over treatment of prisoners in the Middle East and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is widespread in both parties. The White House had fought to prevent the restrictions, with Vice President Cheney visiting key Republicans in July and a spokesman yesterday repeating President Bush's threat to veto the larger bill that the language is now attached to -- a $440 billion military spending measure.

Our promotion of torture as a viable interrogation tool, and the ghastly, abhorrent images that have come out of places like Abu Gharib, will taint America in the eyes of the world for as long as I'm alive. I'm sure of it. You know how, in documentaries about WWII, when they interview Dutch survivors or French survivors, or even German survivors, they all talk about America in a certain way? If not as heroes, then at least as a benevolent presence, a group of people who came into a situation and tried their best to make it better. That's the kind of PR that billions of dollars can't buy, to positively impact the lives of people in other countries.

Now turn that into negative PR and multiply the effect by 100,000. That's Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharib. In fact, worse yet, experts repeatedly confirm that torture isn't even that useful as an interrogation tool because people will say anything to get you to stop torturing them. This isn't the movies, where you can torture a guy to find out where he stashed the briefcase full of money and then immediately go check to make sure he's telling the truth. These detainees (what a horrible euphamism...they're prisoners...) could like to us and theoretically get away with it, because we have no immediate way to even verify their information.

So the torture hinders any attempt we might make at gaining support around the world for our bullshit unilateral policies AND doesn't even provide for better, more accurate intelligence. Not to mention the whole "it's morally wrong to torture people, and America should be better than that" argument, which itself is pretty compelling.

But just when you think all the goodness has been slowly drained out of this country by corporate greed and blind ignorance, some people end up doing the right thing. Yeah, they're only doing it because they can, with the White House weakened by ongoing Iraq turmoil and continual post-Katrina headaches. But, hey, it's something. Our nation's government is so backwards and villainous these days, I keep expecting to read about their "Irish baby eating" and "witch burning" policies.

The Senate's 90 to 9 vote suggested a new boldness among Republicans to challenge the White House on war policy. The amendment by McCain, one of Bush's most significant backers at the outset of the Iraq war, would establish uniform standards for the interrogation of people detained by U.S. military personnel, prohibiting "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment while they are in U.S. custody.

Okay, I just want to make sure we're all following this...President Bush, the President who did not veto a single bill during his entire first term, has vowed to veto a bill simply for prohibiting "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment for prisoners detained by the US Military.

I fear most Americans would agree with him. I haven't really seen as much outrage about the fact that we routinely, as part of our routine operating procedure when dealing with those suspected of terrorism, torture, degrade, humiliate and even murder people. Sometimes, innocent people! Hey, that's wrong, folks.

Our country used to stand for something. When I was growing up, sure, I knew our country was kind of full of shit. I knew that the whole "all men are created equal" thing that's in the Declaration of Independence only became the actual law in the 60's, and still isn't really enforced. I basically knew our president (even back then in the 80's) was a wealthy halfwit walking around in a permanent daze, getting advice from twisted old industrialists and slack-jawed ideologues.

But America still stood for something. We were the ones who give everyone a fair trial, who refuse to beat a confession out of people or search their house without cause. We respected a right to privacy, based on the notion that what someone does in their own home, behind closed doors, without hurting anyone else, was no one's business but their own. We were the country that gave everyone a shot, no matter how they started out in life, or who their parents were. And we were the ones who called out the countries that tortured people. Now, we need Senators to remind the Administration of what it's all about, that this "War on Terror" isn't worth fighting if it turns us all into terrorists.

Here is a list of the 9 Senators who voted against McCain's perfectly reasonable anti-torture bill. Hopefully, one day, they will all be captured in some far-flung destination and mercilessly tortured within an inch of their lives. Possibly with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch.

Allard (R-CO)
Bond (R-MO)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Stevens (R-AK)