Torture is wrong unless we do it

“We don't torture people in America and people who say we do simply know nothing about our country.” – President George W. Bush in an Interview with Australian TV - October 18, 2003.

As the recent releases of Bush Administration papers reveal, Bush lied.

Torture is illegal in the United States. Not sometimes, all the time. There are no exceptions to the rule.

One only has to read the convoluted paperwork of the Bush Administration to see the extreme they went to in order to rationalize and justify the crime of torture.

The people involved; Bush, people involved in creating the policy and those who carried out the torture should be prosecuted.

There is no excuse for what we did. It is ethically and morally reprehensible.

It is wrong.

And yet we continue to turn a blind eye, try to pretend it didn’t happen or rationalize it away.

And now the president I had hope for has opened with the German gambit (also called the Nuremburg Defense), the torturers were just following orders and won’t be prosecuted. That’s the same excuse Nazis used to justify torture and extermination camps. The Nuremberg Principles put a quick end that excuse.

Nuremberg Principle IV states:

"The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."

The United States military adjusted the Uniform Code of Military Justice after World War II. They included a rule nullifying this defense, essentially stating that American military personnel are allowed to refuse unlawful orders.

“Our enemies didn't adhere to the Geneva Convention. Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death. But every one of us -- every single one of us -- knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them.”
- Senator John McCain

Someone needs to show this quote to President Obama. It might remind him what our country is all about.

President Obama's decision in not prosecuting Americans who tortured detainees is reprehensible. Torture is illegal - these people broke the law - there is no excuse for torture. Letting the perpetrators get away with it sends a sickening message to the world.

The canard that they "were only following orders' is the excuse we wouldn't let the Germans and Japanese use after WW II. Why are Americans the only ones who get to use this excuse?

Shame on America for practicing torture and then not abiding by the laws we created in our country and helped create for international law to prevent torture.

What message does Obama’s decision send to the world? We are opposed to torture unless we do it, then its okay. What would the US do if our citizens were tortured like the detainees of Guantanamo or Abu Grahib or the secret little prisons around the world were we tortured people?

You can bet America would be up in arms if any of our citizens were tortured with the same techniques we have been using for the past six or seven years. We wouldn’t stand for it.

Why are we now?

All those who participated in torture and those who ordered it should be held accountable for their actions - and that means a trial. America needs to be the example of how laws should be followed.

We need to send a message loud and clear to the rest of the world. We are the beacon of liberty and freedom. We are a country of laws and we will follow them. Torture is never, never, never appropriate.

“The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the Convention. It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today.”
- President Ronald Reagan, May 20th 1988

Shame on Bush and his Administration for believing torture is appropriate.

Shame on Obama and his Administration for sweeping these crimes under the rug.