Water-boarding

I’ve been thinking about this for quite awhile. It was approved in the Bush Administration with the active support of Vice President Cheney. The process, the torture, was probably developed decades earlier as a way to extract information from a captured enemy.

WATERBOARDING.

        

At the GOP debate this week Bachman, Perry and Cain were for the use of the water boarding torture to force information from prisoners.

Paul was not. He declared that water boarding is torture. He also reminded the applauding crowd (audience) that seemed to lust after the process that it is illegal under both United States and international laws. He also called it un-American.

Huntsman agreed with Paul and said that torture diminishes our standing in the world and the values we project.

Senator John McCain who was tortured when he was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam said to his republican colleagues in a letter that water boarding is torture.

Torture is not part of the American ethic. It is not and it has never been part of what we stand for. IT IS WRONG! It is wrong morally and ethically.

Bachman, Perry and Cain are wrong and because of their belief they should not be President of the United States.

The argument on the part of the pro water-boarding folks is that none of those tortured by water boarding are combatants under a single flag. They are a rogue enemy intent on killing anyone under a banner of religious or political beliefs. It is therefore acceptble to prevent further death and destruction. The argument makes us all pause and reflect, but in the end torture of any kind is inhumane and goes against the basic beliefs of the Oneness of humankind. It is inimical to the sharing of spiritual hopes and actions of peace. It destroys the decency within each of us who embrace democracy as a method of life and liberty.