It will also contribute greatly to their downfall. When it comes to law and human rights, America cannot afford to have a double standard. An illegal act that shocks the conscience in one case cannot suddenly become legal when circumstances make it more convenient. There is no room in America for two sets of laws when it comes to basic human rights.
When we allow ourselves to adopt the tactics of our enemies, we become our enemy. When we accept the practices of barbarism that we have decried for decades when used by thuggish dictators and war criminals, we become war criminals. When we start trying to create distinctions between cruelty and torture, or between criminal torture and "necessary" torture, we fail ourselves and all of humanity.
As another witness at the hearing, former Assistant Attorney General in the Clinton administration Walter Dellinger said, "I'm not sure that we want to be a nation which officially approves of the use of cruelty as a matter of government policy."
Men like Lamar Smith are everything that America should not be.
By JC Garrett
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