We all know that we cannot win the War on a Tactic without torture. At least, that's the current message from the West Wing. Every day we are reminded that by the following week, or before Election Day, whichever is more convenient, we will have our families in danger, our nation in disarray, and the Terrists Winin'. And we just can't have that. Especially with CIA officers buying litigaton insurance should they happen to be on the wrong end of an indictment for torture, or even violation of those "quaint" Geneva Conventions.
I don't know about you, but I do have a pretty simple test to see if voters tending to the Red Shift come November should stay with that leaning, or perhaps go to the side where we admit that our credibility is in the crapper and we shouldn't ever, ever allow torture as a matter of course.
I say this while I also recognize that the interrogators, faced with the literal ticking bomb would likely torture if they felt it warranted, and would be exonerated for that torture under the defense of necessity. In such cases, torture is a lot less heinous as the consideration of the prevention of massive death and injury versus the rights of a single torturer to avoid pain, or to prevent the clock to run out and the explosion, or whatever, occur.
But it is the test we must be concerned about. The test I propose is simple.
If you, as a voter, are willing to stand in a room, with another human being, and perform torture, you can vote any way you want.
If you, as a voter, are siding with the right of CIA operatives to torture for the purpose of achieving a quick disgorgment of information from an enemy combatant, then go ahead. In fact, if you are so willing and gungho to perform torture, sign up as a CIA interrogator.
However, if you are not willing to hold a captive under as they are waterboarded, or aren't willing to stack up prisoners on boxes with electrodes on genitals, or aren't willing to sic dogs on a prisoner, then you, as a voter, have to take some pretty drastic action.
If you are not willing to commit torture, by yourself, and in real time, then you have no reason whatsoever allowing another person to commit torture in your name.
Similarly, if you aren't willing to use Depleted Uranium weapons because those weapons leave a fairly large amount of radioactivity behind, then you must act against the use of those weapons, including voting for those that want to see the US and allies comply with the Geneva Conventions against such Weapons of Mass Destruction. And DU is a weapon of mass destruction.
If you are willing to allow President Bush, and his entourage of warmongers, to allow use of White Phosphorous, or Napalm, or Agent Orange, or bio-weapons, then you'd better test yourself first.
For the reality of life and elections is this. Your vote matters. When you vote to allow torture, you are voting to allow yourself to torture. You are allowing our government to sponsor such actions, in your name.
That's right. You, by voting for people that advocate torture, are by extension of your vote, a torturer yourself.
I'm not comfortable wearing the mantle of "torturer". Truth is, I want nothing to do with it. Most importantly, I do not ever, ever want it done in my name.
I will not vote with the torturers, the officials that characterize the Geneva Conventions as quaint or difficult to understand. I think the matter is pretty simple.
I can't torture a person in real time, using my own two hands. And I can't allow some kid, or an Armed Services or CIA lifer to torture in my name. For when I vote to allow torture, I am a torturer.
I may be many things. There is one thing that I am not, and never will be. On this, I am certain. I love my America, and believe in the moral high ground that has characterized this nation for decades. Or at least until December 2000.
I cannot torture.
Do not torture in my name. Do not harm my country by advocating torture in my name. I can't torture, nor can I allow torture in my name or in the name of the United States of America.
I've passed my own test with flying colors. My intentions and conduct as a citizen are simple, sure and defined. Don't do in my name what I cannot do on my own. And while I'm at it, I believe those advocating torture, and their comrades, must never hold, or continue to occupy any office in this, my very own and beloved, United States.