Doing The Moral Limbo Paul Waldman* | September 20, 2006
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/20/doing_the_moral_limbo.php Before we hail Colin Powell, John McCain, Lindsay Graham and their Republican colleagues as some kind of heroes of liberty for standing up to President Bushs proposals for interrogating terrorist suspects, lets recall what their brave position on this issue is: The United States of America shouldnt torture people. It is a testament to how ethically diseased todays GOPthose guardians of moral values, rememberhas become that this is a minority position within their party. Bushs September 15 soliloquy on flawed logica topic he knows something aboutwas prompted by the willingness of the former secretary of state and the two prominent Republican senators (as well as at least six other Republican senators and another former secretary of state) to oppose him on a matter of national security. If there's any comparison between the compassion and decency of the American people and the terrorist tactics of extremists, it's flawed logic. I simply can't accept that, Bush said. It's unacceptable to think that there's any kind of comparison between the behavior of the United States of America and the action of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective. In other words, if you object to kangaroo courts and the use of alternative interrogation methods, you must think were no better than terrorists, a logical double-twisting back flip worthy of Greg Louganis. Bush and most of his followers continue to dance their moral limbo, their backs arched as they descend lower every time the chorus begins again. They would turn America into a country that tortures prisoners on the off chance that doing so might yield some useful information (even though it almost never does). They excused the abuse of innocent Iraqis and Afghans in detention facilities on the grounds that, well, at least our soldiers didnt behead anyone. They enthusiastically embrace the administrations argument that the president can pick and choose which laws to enforce and which to ignore, simply because hes the commander in chief. Call me crazy, but I doubt that if the president making that argument was Bill Clinton, theyd feel quite the same way. And they now rally around Bushs effort to set up modern star chambers in which people can be tried, convicted and eventually executed without ever being permitted to see the evidence against them. The justification is always that were dealing with terrorists, who are really, really bad people. So why should they deserve due process? The answer that the twisted conservative mind seems incapable of grasping is that a nation committed to liberty, justice and the rule of law does not have one set of procedures for nice people and another set for mean people. It sets up procedures that reflect its values. Thats called principle, and it is something that Bushs supporters dont talk much about these days. For them it is always about good guys and bad guys, and if were dealing with bad guys, then nothing we do can be wrong. Their spinning has grown so desperate that any appreciation of even the most rudimentary facts of history has, from the sheer centrifugal force, flown off from their brains. At the end of World War II, confronted with the most monstrous crime in human history, America did not establish kangaroo courts to dispense swiftly with the perpetrators and sate our thirst for vengeance. Along with our allies, we constructed the Nuremberg trials to be as open and fair as possible, in no small part to show the world how democracies act and what makes us different from our enemies. But some would have us believe that the Third Reich was nothing compared to the threat posed by radical Islamists. The ultra-right Manchester Union-Leader recently called the war on terror the most difficult and challenging war we have ever faced. And its not just World War II that was small peanuts. Recently, Bush told a group of conservative writers brought to the White House to meet with him, It's impossible for someone to have grown up in the 50s and 60s to envision a conflict with people that just kill mercilessly, using techniques that are kind of foreign to modern warfare, as right-wing talking head Fred Barnes reported. Those who grew up during the Cold War, like their namby-pamby Greatest Generation parents, just arent capable of understanding the sheer apocalyptic nightmare were up against. (Although its good to see Bush reaching out this wayhe also recently had a 90-minute Oval Office rap session with a group of right-wing radio hosts including Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Neal Boortz. Keep your friends close and your sycophants closer, I suppose.) And if were not just involved in a war but fighting the most dangerous, difficult war in our history against the most super-evil enemy any country has ever faced, then who has time for the Constitution? As John Yoo, the former Justice Department official responsible for much of the administrations rethinking of our entire system of laws, recently said, We are used to a peacetime system in which Congress enacts the laws, the president enforces them, and the courts interpret them. In wartime, the gravity shifts to the executive branch. Silly us for getting used to a system in which Congress enacts the laws, the president enforces them, and the courts interpret them. Time to revise all those Schoolhouse Rock songs. It is impossible to see Yoos sentimentone he shares with an administration devoted to the unitary executiveas anything other than deeply anti-American. We could call it conservo-fascist, but that would just be name-calling. The fact is, however, that of late conservatives have not only demonstrated their contempt for fundamental American values, they have embraced the most reprehensible tactics with a disturbing glee. In the latest Weekly Standard, William Kristolfierce advocate of not only the war in Iraq but another war against Iran, so you know he knows what hes talking aboutenthuses that Republicans are becoming the pro-torture party, and therefore theyre bound to do well in Novembers elections. If this truly is a clash of civilizations, the conservatives have chosen to engage it by getting in touch with their inner barbarian. And when progressives (and the occasional conservative) question whether such actions betray our values, the answer from Bush and his supporters is that we should be measured not by our principlesor by any principles at allbut by the actions of our enemies. The moral high ground is to be found no more than one step above the worst thing terrorists have done lately. The president may order the use of sleep deprivation and stress positions to induce mental and physical agony in prisonersbut hey, he hasnt personally chopped anyones head off, so you know hes on the side of the angels. But it is moral poison to measure yourself by the worst acts of your enemies. This is what conservatives have brought to America; the time since 9/11 has seen a moral descentif not an outright moral deadeningon the part of the right. Republicans are fond of questioning Democrats loyalty whenever they oppose a Republican president, as though he and the nation were one. But one must ask whether their loyalty is to a nation and to the ideals on which it was founded, or to a political movement and those who lead it. This is hardly the first time that the American political right (whichever party it inhabited at the time) has argued for casting off such inconvenient notions as justice, freedom, democracy or the rule of law because they quavered with fear at external threats. Nor will it be the last. But every time history has judged them wrong, and this time will be no different. NOTE: Enjoy this article from the blog tompaine.com while you can. Michael Chertoff and the EU are now poised to target the Internet and the purveyors of information and support for "terrorists." Do you think they mean articles like this? *Paul Waldman is a senior fellow at Media Matters for America and the author of the new book, Being Right is Not Enough: What Progressives Can Learn From Conservative Success, just released by John Wiley & Sons. The views expressed here are his own. --------------------------------- Want to be your own boss? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. -- This is ZESTGlobal. Post articles on international affairs to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTGlobal by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/join/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/join (Yahoo! 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