America as a Role Model – "Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them do Unto You"

In regards to interrogation procedures in light of recent news that President Bush vetoed the bill that would have banned the CIA from using the waterboarding technique in interrogation procedures that simulates drowning. Of course, the Democrats like Senator Dianne Feinstein, democratic-socialist of California [FoxNews} –

“This president has the chance to end the torture debate for good, yet he chose instead to leave the door open to use torture in the future,” said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee[i]
She said Bush ignored the advice of 43 retired generals and admirals and 18 national security experts, including former secretaries of state and national security advisers, who supported the bill.[ii] …
The bill would have limited the CIA to 19 interrogation techniques that are used by the military and spelled out in the Army Field Manual. Bush said he vetoed the measure because it is important for the CIA to have a separate and classified interrogation program for suspected terrorists who possess critical information about possible plots against the United States.
Bush who used his weekly radio address to announce the veto, said the program had helped stop plots against a Marine camp in Djibouti and the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, and plans to fly passenger planes into a Los Angeles tower or London’s Heathrow Airport and city buildings. …
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the nation’s ability to lead the world depends on its morality, not military might. “We will begin to reassert that moral authority by attempting to override the president’s veto next week,” said Pelosi, D-Calif. …
Bush said waterboarding currently is not part of the CIA program. The attorney general has deemed that program legal under domestic and international law, he said. Still, waterboarding remains in the CIA’s tool kit. The technique can be used, but it requires the consent of the attorney general and president on a case-by-case basis. Bush wants to keep that option open. …
Democrats say the CIA should be restricted to the techniques in the Army Field Manual. They include the “good-cop-bad-cop” routine; making prisoners think they are in another country’s custody; and separating a prisoner from others for up to 30 days.
In addition to waterboarding, the field manual prohibits hooding prisoners or putting duct tape across their eyes;[iii] burning or physically hurting prisoners in other ways; subjecting them to hypothermia or mock executions. It does not allow food, water and medical treatment to be withheld. Dogs may not be used in any aspect of interrogation. …
There also are concerns that the use of waterboarding would undermine U.S. human rights efforts overseas and could place Americans at greater risk of being tortured if they are captured abroad. …
Bush objected to two other provisions:
- a new independent inspector general for the government’s intelligence agencies to improve coordination and information-sharing. Bush said the position was unnecessary.
- Senate confirmation of the directors of the National Security Agency and National Reconnaissance Office. Bush said that could delay the directors’ ability to take over quickly and risk injecting politics into the selection process.

On the last two reasons of a veto, I agree.

The United States Army updated and replaced Field Manual, FM 34-52 with FM 2-22.3 in efforts to stress the changes and the established rules of interrogation, specifically written in plain language to ensure there would be no mistakes in understanding the restrictions. However, President Bush wishes to retain waterboarding for use by the CIA and only under the President’s permission in conjunction with the attorney general. It is an exception that remains clearly a difficult issue.

If the political left, especially those who were quoted by Fox News in the excerpt above had not been throwing political maneuvers in the way of the Bush administration in its conduct of the declared war against terrorism – they would get more support on this and other pertaining important issues.

They have been telling the President that it was unnecessary that Saddam Hussein and his regime should have been toppled in the Iraqi Invasion phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom and from there they have been more interested in political games than national and world security.

For example, in regards to the wire tapping process needed to intercept calls to and from overseas by Islamic fascist operatives and their supporters. The political left has painted a picture that all Americans are being wire tapped. I realize that we must watch closely those that have certain powers within our government system; however, this action has been no different than it was in World War II under the leadership of the FDR administration, in fact less so, when it comes to use of such methods and policies required to fight against the declared enemy. The confusion in this unusual global war is frustrating on its own without anti-American, Bush-hating politicos unfairly stepping in the way of operations required to fight against and keep America safe from further attacks and wear the enemy down until its leadership and logistic sources disappear. Hindsight demonstrates if we would have stopped it before it gained strength and such power, this issue would not now be discussed; however, hindsight is always 20/20 and the fault there is of several administrations and congresses who failed to see the big picture of the situation – mainly ignoring the warning signs from experts they are supposed to use for knowledgeable advice.

We cannot expect to be a role model of the world if we have the attitude of “do as I say, not as I do” – no matter how important it is to seek information on plots against the United States and free nations of the world.

Despite the horrific track record of Islamic fascists and their abuse of prisoners and barbaric method of beheading captors – we must remain in focus with the human rights issue and what the Geneva Accords resolution in the international body of law have agreed upon.

Yet, anyone who doesn’t think that the American political left is mostly protesting because they do not want the political opposition to be successful is naïvé or just parroting propaganda. It is not un-American or anti-American to protest against something; but it is the reason for the protest that makes it despicable. And, concerning the international body and “human rights” organizations and entities: they must be just as adamant against the way America’s enemy’s actions under the international rules of war as they are concerning actions of the United States government and military. In other words – those standards hold true for ALL.

That is my take on this whole affair, and as I have used this quote before, I will use it again …

Whoever battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche

And to those who are against this declared war and what must be done to win it:

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke

Those that served in wars, fought the battles and have seen the horror of it, and they understandably despise it. But never confuse this with cowardice. If asked and required to, the warrior will return to the battle to win the war because it is not just his duty or that he is brave, it is because the consequences of losing the war is far greater than the horror of experiencing it.
Keith A. Lehman

Bottom line: This war will be won or lost on the battlefront at home—and right now the Democratic Party is a big part of the problem. [Referring to Operation Iraqi Freedom]
David Horowitz

We ask no favours of the enemy. We seek from them no compunction. On the contrary, if tonight our people were asked to cast their vote whether a convention should be entered into to stop the bombing of cities, the overwhelming majority would cry, “No, we will mete out to them the measure, and more than the measure, that they have meted out to us.” The people with one voice would say: “You have committed every crime under the sun. Where you have been the least resisted there you have been the most brutal. It was you who began the indiscriminate bombing. We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You will do your worst – and we will do our best.”
Winston Churchill
{Speech before the London County Council, July 14th 1941}

Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity.
Frank Herbert 
{Dune, 1965}

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[i] A congressional committee that sometimes demonstrates contradiction to its given name of “intelligence”.

[ii] What else is new? President Bush ignores his constituents and has been for most of the two terms he spent in office.

[iii] This prevents then from closing their eyes, while they are forced to remain awake for long periods of time.