Suddenly, and at a very inopportune time for the American Ruling Party, there is lots of discussion of torture in the news. American torture.
Say that out loud once or twice.
American torture.
With practice, it should roll off the tongue like, say, American Pastime, or American Pie.
I think that's what our congresscrittters have been doing, because nobody, it seems, is ashamed to be talking about a "compromise" between the barbaric and ineffective practice of torturing human beings, and following the
settled law of the Geneva Conventions prohibition on torture.
More, and my modest proposal, on the flip...
On cue, to help drum up some gravitas for this utter insanity, the corporate media has spun the position of McCain/Graham/Warner as a GOP rebellion. The narrative is supposed to go something like this: Bush wants to keep his "tough interrogations" program, the Defeatocrats want to give Al-Qaeda US Passports, and the "Rebellious" bunch above is looking for the sensible middle ground.
Ah,yes, that sensible middle ground. The area between right and wrong. Between "On" and "Off". Or between Heaven and Hell.
Problem is, there IS no middle ground between right and wrong in this instance. And I have an idea that can help these idiots get past this...Quite simple, really.
As has been pointed out here and elsewhere, any retrofitting of the torture prohibition will necessarily leave out some "techniques" that are in fact torture, so BushCo gets the loophole it so desperately wants.
I would ask any legislator who backs this or any other version of TortureLite(tm) to submit to any technique that the CIA, DoD, or Dick Cheney dream up before it can be used on 'evildoors' (whatever they are).
After all, if it's just a bunch of "fraternity pranks", where's the harm?
And if it's so effective, couldn't this test program double as a tool for ferreting out corruption among our congresscritters?
And since America has such a supposed appetite for this sadism, maybe we could make a lottery out of it, and start paying for those tax cuts. The winners could even be in on the midnight kidnappings, secret flights, and the rest of the cloak and dagger act. Hell, it could take "reality TV" to a whole new level.
At the very least, it would be a whole lot more honest than the obscenity of trying to put so much perfume on this particular pig.
Compromising on torture; feh.
Shame unto death on you, especially, John McCain.
The rest certainly ought to know better, but you actually do.