Why is torture a “left” issue?
A lot of words have been blathered this week on the issue of torture, especially since Brennan withdrew his name from any potential positions of authority in national security. I had no idea he’d been the one to convince Obama to change his FISA position. It would have been nice for it to come with more explanation. Of course it’s hard to have transparency in a secret matter. But, in a democracy, you have to have transparency at some level, or it’s no longer a democracy. I’d like to believe we still live in a democracy.
But other than Brennan’s letter, I’m not sure why the anti-torture position is dismissed as something of the “liberal blogs” as if, you can just say, well “the liberal blogs think x and x and you know how they are.”
I’m pretty sure Andrew Sullivan is not liberal, and he’s been against torture from the getgo… I don’t really think I hold all that radical of positions, but from what you see on TV, I’d be right out there with radical terrorists.
Torture should never be legalized or rationalized as US policy. Ever. Don’t use Orwellian words like rendition, or harsh interrogation. Call it torture. Is it cruel and unusual punishment? Don’t do it.
Now. Do you think you absolutely have to do it? Think three times. Why is this such a hard concept? One of the things that I learned while travelling overseas is that while people are mad at the US for some current policy, they want us to fix ourselves so we can be an example of a government by the people, that works, and is not corrupt.
I’m not sure which is more corrupting, torture, or the greed of people on wall street who need more than $1million/ year salary. In both cases, though, we need to correct these excesses so that we can again hold ourselves up as example.
