The GOP brings the Spanish Inquisition to the U.S.

The first recorded use of the torture technique now known as waterboarding, was during the Spanish Inquisition. With the possible exception of the Pope and Catholic College of Cardinals, few today would deny that the main purpose of the Inquisition was to torture suspected heretics. In subsequent centuries, military figures caught using the technique were tried and convicted of torture. Not "enhanced interrogation techniques"--but torture. It is illegal under international law and treaty. It is also illegal under U.S. law. A Texas sheriff was convicted of using it on prisoners when George W. Bush was governor of the state. Surely he and our former attorney general, who used to serve on the Texas Supreme Court, must have known of the case.

And yet, they approved its use. I cannot believe they did it because they did not know it was torture--and therefore illegal. They did it because they do not care. They did it because they do not believe that the law applies equally to them. They cannot conceive that it would ever be applied to them. I'm sure most Nazi strongmen thought the same.

But we have given George W. Bush cause to believe this. The Senate seems set to approve his newest nominee for attorney general--a man who will not state the long-established legal view that waterboarding is torture. Congress has rolled over and played dead for him for years, finally overturning his veto, for the first time, on a relatively insignificant water bill. And the American people voted for him in sufficient numbers that he was able to steal elections twice with vote rigging in just one large state each time.

Yes the Bush administration is guilty of torture. But, like the Germans under Hitler, we are guilty of letting him. History will judge us no less harshly.

Comments

[Vicki]

This really is so depressing it's almost impossible to get my head wrapped around. All the while, Feinstein and Schumer play CYA in the Senate and do NOTHING about it, while they have the chance. What a farce!

Thanks for posting this.