Torture

[rivkat]

This is what I just wrote to my Senators and Representatives:

Congress is preparing to pass a law that authorizes cruel treatment like hypothermia, death threats against a detainee and his family, extended sleep deprivation, and other unconscionable acts. (For details, the excellent analysis by Jack Balkin, Marty Lederman, and others at Balkinization, http://balkin.blogspot.com, is a good place to look.) People – foreign or American, on U.S. soil or outside it – will be subject to this treatment at the unreviewable discretion of the president and the military, even though we know already that the authorities made numerous mistakes in identifying “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo and elsewhere, including mistakes that led to the torture of innocents like Maher Arar.

I don’t want to put too much weight on the presumed, now never-to-be-determined culpability of detainees, though, because there are things that human beings should not do to other human beings, as humanity has agreed through the Geneva Conventions. The U.S.’s shameful decision to define torture down and to abandon the legal constraints accepted by every civilized nation – and a number of not-so-civilized ones – is wrong. It is evil. And, though it shouldn’t matter, it will make us less safe as well as less free, both individually (who will be the next enemy combatant?) and collectively (as our moral authority in the world erodes further).

I don’t expect my representatives to have the moral fiber to vote against this outrage to law and decency. The only thing I can do now is to say: You do this without my consent.

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” – Thomas Jefferson.

Those of you reading this who are Americans: Will this be done in your name?

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Your post tipped me over the edge, and I just phoned my Senators urging them to take a strong, public line on the issue. There's a little hope from them, maybe. Fortunately, my Representative is completely reliable (http://rushholt.com/), which is quite a weight off my mind these days.

[pinkfinity.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm spending a lot of time this month writing letters to governing-entities protesting stupid and/or unethical rulemaking.

[terpsichoreslyr.livejournal.com]

My letter (http://terpsichoreslyr.livejournal.com/157097.html) to my congressman was much more shrill. Good job.

[brak666.livejournal.com]

I don’t expect my representatives to have the moral fiber to vote against this outrage to law and decency. The only thing I can do now is to say: You do this without my consent.

Thank you for putting into words exactly what I was feeling. I hope you don't mind, but I just sent those words to both of my senators.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

All we've got now is our anger, and the ability to turn it into something constructive. I'm glad you spoke up. I believe we can make a difference, over time.