Torture: The Long View

Worse than the short view.

Funny (or something) how when you analyze the practical aspects of moral issues, the right thing to do is also the smart thing to do.

Not Funny that our country has not learned this lesson. George Washington knew it. George Bush, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and, most appallingly but least surprisingly, most leaders of what has become the public face of Christianity in America have not.

Andrew Sullivan, who if nothing struggles to be both smart and a follower of Jesus, found this:

"Now I'd like you to use your imagination for a second. Let's assume the unthinkable: that America had embraced Mr. Bush's "Program" in the Second World War; that German, Italian and Japanese fighters had been waterboarded, subjected to the cold cell and techniques like "long time standing." Do any of you think for even a second that these nations would have been our allies and friends in the following generations? Think of how much darker, colder and more hate-filled our world would be than it is today...

A short time ago, in Germany, I spoke with one of the senior advisors of Chancellor Angela Merkel. I noted that a criminal complaint had been filed against Donald Rumsfeld and a number of others invoking universal jurisdiction for war crimes offenses. How would the chancellor see this, I asked? There was a long pause, and I fully expected to get a brush-off response. But what came was very surprising.

"You must remember," said the advisor, "that my chancellor was born and raised in a totalitarian state. She cannot be indifferent to questions of this sort. In fact, she views them as matters of the utmost gravity and they will be treated that way. The Nuremberg process happened in my country. It was painful for us. But we absorbed it. It became a part of our legacy. An important part of our legacy. We will not forget it. But I have to ask you: why has your country forgotten?"

- Scott Horton, in a speech at the New School, on the significance of December 7 in American history.