Torture

I'm watching some of the debate around the torture memos and I think it's important that we don't get too distracted by the side show. The issue at hand is that the President and Vice President of the United States and many of their underlings conspired to commit torture in violation of US and International laws and treaties and they should be held to account. They committed war crimes, there can be no doubt about that simple and basic fact.

Now, what are we going to do about it? If we don't prosecute this time whats to stop any future president from declaring an unending war (the war on terror) and using this as precedent for declaring anyone and everyone (including American citizens) "enemy combatants", locking them up and torturing them.

I find it interesting that so many of the "conservatives" who were absolutely outraged by a DHS report on left-wing and right-wing domestic terrorism (a report ordered by and written by the Bush administration no less) don't seem to have any issues with setting the precedent that the president has the right to torture.

These are the methods of the Spanish Inquisition, the Communist Chinese and the Khymer-Rouge. Anyone who would defend these techniques has absolutely lost all moral standing in my eyes - I don't want to hear about abortion, or the immorality of Hollywood or any other trumped up culture war bullshit from any conservative who gives a pass to Bush, Cheney, Yoo and the rest of this lot on torture.

This isn't a remotely difficult issue - either of law or morality. This is black and white and gets to our basic sense of humanity.