The Commissioner Speaks

A great piece here from the head of the 9/11 Commission. I think he has captured the essence of the torture debate that I have harped on so many times: The moral question is subjective, of course. It is closely related to another question: What standard of civilized behavior should the United States exemplify, in a fight to preserve civilization against barbarism? My own view is that the cool, carefully considered, methodical, prolonged, and repeated subjection of captives to physical torment, and the accompanying psychological terror, is immoral. I offer no opinion as to whether such conduct is a federal crime; merely that it is immoral. My moral standards are entitled to no special regard. My argument is not that others should adopt my morality. It is that the responsible policy officials should explicitly, thoughtfully, employ moral reasoning of their own. And, further, my argument is that the substitution of detailed legal formulations for detailed moral ones is a deflection of responsibility. These two highlighted passages are very important. Firstly, the legal justification for the "coercive interrogation techniques" being used as a veneer that covers the true issue. Whether or not the administration succeeds in making their policies "legal" is irrelevant to the central question: What standard of civilized behavior do we support, and expect the rest of the world to embody? The legality of a situation does not necessarily determine its moral correctness. We are fighting a protracted, muddled war against an enemy who we perceive to be evil and barbaric. We purport to desire democracy, freedom, and civilization for the Iraqi people, and believe that a defeat of Islamic extremists will create this (at least that's the official line). Yet, if we do not exemplify these values, even in times of hardship, than our colorful rhetoric is just that, without substance. This "do as I say, not as I do" mentality is one of the fundamental reasons for the rest of the world to question our motivations, and look to the fiscal justifications instead of the moral ones. Since our fiscal motivations are much more consistent and predictable than our moral ones, many people have (correctly?) assumed that the US Government is driven solely by the almighty dollar. I dare our government to prove that assertion wrong. I challenge them to do the right thing merely because it IS the right thing, and not for ulterior motivations. LOL ... sometimes, I just like talking to myself.