That torture is even a subject of debate in this country is a flabbergasting development. That dozens of America's most admired military leaders find themselves openly opposing the commander in chief on such a question is equally surprising. Another astonishment is that McCain, avatar of military honor, finds it necessary, according to his perceptions of what politics requires, to trim his opposition to torture. It may be just that unthinkable now that Bush will sign the bill before him. But who knows? On torture, the shocks abound.
That is the final paragraph of Torture shocks, an op; ed column in today's Boston Globe by James Carroll. It demonstrates how far John McCain has abandoned any pretense of honor in his lusting after presidential power. This column is something you must read.
The occasion of Carroll's writing it as that Bush has before him the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2008, which contains a provision
tying CIA interrogation techniques to the US Army Field Manual, which is explicit in prohibiting "acts of violence or intimidation, including physical or mental torture, or exposure to inhumane treatment." The CIA would henceforth be forbidden to engage in any kind of torture, but so would any "instrumentality thereof, regardless of nationality or physical location."
We would bind ourselves to one standard,prohibiting any form of torture, and being once again in conromity with the provisions of the Geneva Convention, and
as a group of retired admirals and generals put it recently, with "the moral principles on which this country was founded."
Carroll tells of the actions of the "Human Rights First" organization, a group of dozens of former military leaders who have sought the abolition of all forms of torture, making three key points in their argumet:
- information obtained through brutality is unreliable
- our using such methods will subject American soldiers to equivalent mistreatment
- procedures in violation of international standards are dishonorable
Here I note that the oaths taken by those who attend our service academies place great emphasis on honor, including not tolerating among them those who violate the standards of honor to which they bind themselves. Perhaps that is why the advocacy pf the members of the group helped to lead to passage of the provision in question, although with insufficient votes to override a veto.
And John McCain? The man who even in his current campaign runs ads which include pictures of the imprisonment by the N Vietnamese in which he himself underwent torture? The man who has made a point in denouncing waterboarding? He voted against extending the standards which would prohibit waterboarding to the CIA:
"What we need," he said in explaining his vote against the Intelligence Authorization Act, "is not to tie the CIA to the Army Field Manual, but rather to have a good faith interpretation of the statutes that guide what is permissible in the CIA program."
AS Carroll notes, McCain thereby provides cover to those who refuse to vote to override.
Carroll offers a rebuttal to McCain, from retired Lt. General Harry Royster, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and one of the ey members of the Hman Rights First effort, quoting him as saying
"But as Senator McCain well knows, the Bush administration has never provided a good faith interpretation of laws prohibiting torture; instead it has produced - and continues to produce - legal opinions that downgrade the definition of torture to the point where the term becomes virtually meaningless and any conduct at all is permissible."
The current head of the DIA Lt. General Michael Maples has testified that his own agency conforms to the the Army Field Manual, and that "such simulated drowning is inhumane and in violation of the Geneva Conventions."
Carroll reminds us that this is not the first time DIA and CIA have been at odds withone another. The issue is personal for him, since his father, Lt. General oseph Carroll, was the founding director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and that Gen Royster, its head when Joseph Carroll passed, presented the flag to Carroll's mother at Arlington Cemetery. In his penultimate paragraph Carroll writes of his father
My father was of that World War II generation of American military figures whose sense of moral purpose was firm. I arrived at different conclusions on large questions of war and peace, but the basic values of decency and honor embodied in my father's career remain ideals against which I measure everything.
There is no justification for legalization, even by silence, inhumane measures such as waterboarding. We are not on the set of "24." And when a serving officer such as General Maples is willing to speak out, it merely adds to what we already know - Admiral McConnell and Attorney General Mukasey have made clear how distasteful waterboarding would be were it done to them, but perhaps because they serve at the pleasure of the President they are unwilling to risk the high ranking positions to which they have risen by speaking the full truth and contradicting the position the President and his administration advocate. Just as John McCain is apparently unwilling to risk the support of the President, even though he has already all but mathematically secured the nomination in his own quest for the presidency.
How disgusting. And how disgusting it is that so many of our elected Representatives and Congressmen are willing to give the President a pass on this key issue, thereby joining him in his complicity in allowing torture to occur.
In one of the more important things I have seen at dailykos, Armando organized a blog swarm against the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, precisely because of that noteworth's willingness to condone torture, because of words finding the Geneva Conventions "quaint." How far we have become inured, that as the Congress finally tries to rein back in an administration which has shamed this we are not demanding of the Congress and flooding letters to the editors on this moral issue.
Thank God for voices like that of James Carroll. I urge you to pass on his column to all of your elected representatives, to demand that they vote to override. And pass it on in any fashion you can.
And beyond that? By his action on this issue John McCain has abandoned any claim to honor coming from his own military service. For him to acquiesce and give cover to the actions of the CIA demonstrate clearly that he would continue the horrific policies of the Bush administration. This nation - and the world - cannot afford that. It has been wrong under Bush, and it would destroy any hope of restoring the honor of the nation and the American people.