It isolates and weakens us as a credible player on the global stage, by defiantly dismissing time-honored codes of basic human decency, codes which we've been taught up 'til now separate the enlightened peoples of the world from barbarians who must be opposed and contained.
If there were one shred of evidence that torture has actually provided actionable intelligence which genuinely made the planet safer, then even I might be forced to concede its effectiveness, and the necessity of its employment. But as much as we're told that this is a vital tool in ensuring our security, I've yet to hear of a single incident in which that's been the case.
And you would think that this Administration in particular, it's arms already sore from congratulating itself for a long list of failures and fabrications, would have leaped by now at the chance to dazzle us all with a real success story.
So where are those proud tales of the valuable information gleaned at Abu Ghraib that saved the lives of our sons and daughters in Iraq? Or the evil plot foiled by essential intelligence from Guantanamo Bay? Or the international terrorist organization smashed thanks to the breaking of a terrorist leader in one of our secret prisons overseas?
How much more obvious does the truth have to be, America, for us to rise up as a unified voice, irregardless of political stripe, and demand an end to this cruel insanity?
Torture is torture. It's not "alternative interrogation." It's sadism masquerading as necessity. It violates international law, and betrays the very tenets of a country that has the temerity to call itself "Christian." It degrades us as a people, and shames us as a nation.
Those of you who agree with the position of our Torturer in Chief are simply not worth talking to. I can only hope that one day you're captured by a so-called "enemy combatant" and subject to the flip side of Mr. Bush's disdain for humanitarian treatment. As your head is being held underwater, or your genitals are being electrocuted, or you're being stripped and anally raped by your captors, I promise to half-heartedly pray that you'll be able to find some comfort in wordlessly repeating, "What's good for the goose is good for the gander, what's good for the goose..."
And for those of you who find Bush's proposed legislation as reprehensible as I do, I urge you to express your disgust as energetically and often as possible. To your Representative. To your Senator. And, perhaps most importantly, to the Texas Torquemada himself.
After all, it's only our national soul that's at stake.
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