Reply #5: This is a lot like homework...

[YvonneCa]

...:7 So, I started out reading the Constitution online here: http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxi.html because I believe the torture issue goes beyond the Geneva Conventions...or even the jurisdiction of SFRC.


Then I came across this post by Tom Ricks: http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/03/16/torture ...and I agree with him completely. Torture is against all we are as a country. How can we have any kind of foreign policy...let alone be a leader of importance...if this is allowed to remain as a defining moment in our history?

This link is to Amnesty International, and it has a lot of good information and references: http://www.amnestyusa.org/war-on-terror/reports-statements-and-issue-briefs/torture-and-the-law/page.do?id=1107981 It refers to the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution.


Having said all that, here's my 'opinion' about the torture issue going forward:

I think our country 'over-steered', like during a car accident, after 9/11. Bush/Cheney were driving. They ordered things done...maybe in a good-faith effort to protect the country...that were wrong and against the values of this country. One result was what we now call 'enhanced interrogation'...or torture. Setting such a policy led to a host of bad behavior...from interrogations that probably exceeded guidelines, to approved torture techniques, to expansion of techniques to Abu Ghraib and other places, to covering up the decision, to Cheney going on TV to argue for torture. The damage to the US and our foreign policy has been great, hopefully not irreparable.

There are several 'groups' that could be held to account. CIA or anyone else (contractors?) who did the actual acts, middle men who knew what was happening and either supported it or stayed silent, those who argued FOR the policy in the administration, all the way up to Bush and Cheney. I am of the opinion...and I'm not a lawyer :7...that all could legally be held accountable. I understand the argument to do so and do not think 'I was just following orders' is ever an excuse.

That said, I want the Bush Administration...Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Feith, etc...to be the ones held responsible. I think Obama is right...his administration needs to look forward. But Congress should do it's job...hold the hearings, do the investigative work, make the story public so that lessons are learned, and decide who made the mistakes and hold them accountable somehow. THAT, IMO, will be the tricky part. It has to be done in a way that helps re-unify the country...not in a way that tears it apart.