Do we really want to excuse torture? (Nashua telegraph editorial)

[struggle4progress]

Published: Saturday, May 2, 2009
Do we really want to excuse torture?

... if the matter ever reached a court of law, much of what the Bush administration did with terrorist suspects would be characterized as torture ...

... U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., says ... “But those who created these legal theories, knowing full well that there was not a reasonable argument, I’m not so sure they shouldn’t be accountable. I don’t see how we as a country say, ‘Oh, fine, we knew this was against international law, we knew it was against our own laws,’ and these people can come up with any phony legal opinion they want. I’ve read these opinions because I’m on the intelligence committee and had access to them much earlier than the public. These arguments are bogus” ...

Feingold makes an excellent point. Won’t the pre-emptive vindication of this bunch set a precedent for future leaders who might also be tempted to ignore the law? Don’t we at least need ... to investigate who did what to whom?

Obama says he wants to look to the future, not to the past, on matters of torture. But would Americans find that compassionate legal philosophy acceptable if it were extended to rape, drive-by shooting and bank robbery?

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090502/OPINION01/905029973/-1/opinion