ok, I know, shameless plug, but c'mon, I was published in the local paper(and in the same issue as Kent conrad(and before him too!)) I thought it read well.
http://www.in-forum.com/...
To provide some context, the guy before me (whose article is now unavailable due to it being too far back) was an ex-CIA interrogator from vietnam. He explained that he felt it was important in the interrogation process for the interrogatee to be unsure of what might be done to him if he didnt cooperate. he also suggested that it was absurd that banning this practice would increase our standing in the world (If i remember right he asks if americans will be tortured less before they are beheaded) He then goes on to argue that our enemy does not believe in the golden rule or the ten commandments, and ends with a note to the senators from ND and MN: butt out and let the interrogators do their job.
This is my first letter to the editor to a real newspaper. I have written to my college newspaper a couple of times before but i obviously got a little more play in the Saturday edition of a regional paper. I wrote my thoughts, edited them, checked my conscience and asked whether or not to write and then finally mailed it in. I'm pretty happy with it, whaddaya think?
btw, I don't know that Hillary is necessarily "moving the goalposts back" by suggesting that if she does well in Texas and Ohio that she will move on to Pennsylvania. I think she is remaining optimistic(although I personally think Obama will have it wrapped up tomorrow) and is hoping to make some more momentum. cut her a little slack. lets see what tomorrow brings and then if she wins both give her credit where credit is due. if not, its probably time to concede and bring the party together against McCain.
UPDATE
per the request of the readers, here is my editorial in its full form.
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Raymond Lottie’s letter Feb. 19 was disturbing to read. He ignores some basic facts in his criticism of votes by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., to ban waterboarding as an interrogation technique.
The most glaring facts that he left out involved the history of the practice. We are referring to a method that was used in the Spanish Inquisition, that we prosecuted in World War II by the Nazis and the Japanese as a war crime and that one of our own soldiers was court-martialed over during Vietnam, and suddenly it is "tying the hands" of the CIA to declare it illegal?
Frankly, waterboarding detainees does as much harm to the country as it does good. Lottie suggests that it is somehow preposterous that methods such as waterboarding cause more retaliation from terrorists, asking something about Americans being tortured less before they are beheaded. How about the thought that we make martyrs out of the people we torture, causing more teenage suicide bombers to be recruited, causing more violence, more anti-Americanism, so on and so forth.
What shocked me the most though was this quote from Lottie: "Our enemy doesn’t believe in the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule," and that this somehow justifies the practice of simulated drowning. Here’s the problem: as a "Christian nation" or more accurately a nation with a lot of Christians, we do believe in them. We also hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men (not just all Americans) are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Anything less is a betrayal of this country’s founding values, and is completely unacceptable.