Michael Signer: An Exemplary Nation Does Not Torture

[BurtWorm]

http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2006/09/tortured_metaph.html

Tortured Metaphors
Posted by Michael Signer

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This was a big deal yesterday. Senator McCain has gone out of his way to cozy up to the President, yet he led a very principled charge, along with Senators Warner and Graham, to buck the Administration on their attempt to eviscerate (sorry, to interpret) Article III of the Geneva Conventions. Amazing. Even in an election year -- even from the Party that showed no hestitation about staging the original vote three weeks before the 2002 midterm elections -- the Senate leadership saw certain things as beyond the pale.

There is no issue that better captures the broad appreciation of America's moral stature in the world -- our ability, in the argument I have been making here and elsewhere, for "exemplarism" -- than the conscious decision not to use torture. The exemplarist argument has always had wide appeal among the broad spectrum of internationalists, whether liberal or conservative. Basically, if you believe (a) America should lead the world, (b) admiration, in addition to fear, has strategic value, you believe that we should avoid things like (c) scrapping generations' worth of careful international conventions against cruelty.

The Administration is so unbelievably out of touch with so many things -- American history, strategic value, their own leadership in Congress, the American people -- it's hard to explain. But perhaps we can do it this way. In 100 years, it will be clear that, in many respects, the Bush Administration was one of the most radical (rather than conservative or realist or idealist) we've seen in a long time. This decision -- to eviscerate the Geneva Conventions -- can only be explained as the product of an absolute commitment to leveraging the greatest political power to the deepest, darkest principles that only the elect can access.

The word "radical" comes from the Latin for "root." This is dark, dank stuff. And, incredibly, Republican Senators were the first to turn the shovel.
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[Poiuyt]

1. Times change, people change, but core values should NOT change

Remember when the US was considered the good guys? We were the ones in the white hat.

I hate what Bush has done to this great country