Posted by
Rich on Saturday, February 16, 2008 7:34:30 AM
The
liberal media is touting the vote yesterday in the Congress to declare
waterboarding as "torture", denying our President and future presidents
the ability to use this technique in special circumstances.
In a local article, "Torture is torture"
you hear the argument if the military doesn't allow it by their field
manuals then the CIA should follow the same rules. This argument is
false on its face as the two agencies have completely different
missions. Consistency is not a compelling reason to take the option off
the table. National security is a critical reason to leave it on the
table.
The second argument used by the liberal media, the ACLU,
anti-torture proponents and Senator John McCain is the "reputation of
the United States is hurt" or we lose the moral high ground. Both of
these arguments assume that our terrorist enemies follow some code,
some form of rule of law, the Geneva Convention or international law
when it comes to torture. They do not. Terrorists do not care about the
moral high ground or the rule of law. Both are anti-thematic to their
goal, which is the destruction of the West.
Islamic militants
are fighting a total war and demand the unconditional surrender of the
West. We are fighting a limited war and Congress is trying to take a
key technique in fighting the war on terror off the table. We are
losing the war on terror by default.
President Bush,
understanding the enemy and the threat, has said he will veto the bill
passed by the Congress. We hope that the Senate sustains his veto. They
must, for their primary role is to protect our citizens, not to be
politically correct.
The article we referenced above asks, "Why veto a bill making that conclusion clear to American agencies and the world?"
Our
answer to this rhetorical question: waterboarding is the nuclear
option to prevent the killing of innocent American men, women and
children. Remember 9/11.
You never take the nuclear option off
the table, ever. That is good national security policy, sends a signal
to our enemies that they may be subjected to this technique and allows
our intelligence services the option to use it in those unique
situations when you have captured someone with critical times sensitive
information, like knowledge of the imminent detonation of a nuclear
weapon.
For more discussion of waterboarding please visit our columns, "Lets be nice to terrorists who want to kill us", "Democrats knew about waterboarding in 2002 and didn't object", and The CIA Interrogation Tapes and the "Judicializing" of Warfare.
Update: There is a great article titled, "A Few Minutes Well Spent" by the National Review Online about waterboarding. We recommend you read it. It points out that, "
Less than five minutes. That's the total amount of time the United
States has waterboarded terrorist detainees. How many detainees? Three."