ADDENDUM, 12/06/05
Torture terrorists if that's the most effective way of finding out what they're up to? Why not? Will they refrain from terror if we refrain from torture? Hah!
Is this a war or a tea party, with Alger Hiss as host? Does torturing terrorists (if that's what it takes to catch the bad guys) make America any less wonderful? Does exceeding the speed limit (if that's what it takes to make it to the hip-hop party on time) make America any less wonderful? You figure it out.
Torture -- or "aggressive interrogation," if you prefer -- can be quarantined. It isn't contagious; you can't catch it unless you're a foreigner who's caught in the wrong place doing the wrong thing (trying to kill Americans). It's not exactly like being a babe in the womb.
Anyone who thinks of John McCain as a moral authority on torture because he endured the pain of torture must also think of John McCain as a moral authority on freedom of speech because he has endured the "pain" of political opposition. Experience does not always breed wisdom. John McCain is right about one thing: the war in Iraq. Which means that he is right far less often than a stopped clock, which is right twice a day.
John McCain is all about John McCain. Most Democrats are all about anything that's anti-Bush and anti-war. If you wish to calibrate your moral compass, do not point it in the direction of John McCain or a Democrat member of Congress (Joe Lieberman excepted).
Torture a terrorist? How could a liberal condone such a thing? A liberal has more important things to condone -- murderers and the torture of innocent unborn children, for example.
Tom Smith has much more.
ADDENDUM: So does Blanton at RedState.org:
John McCain is a fool. He is also a charlatan. He is convinced that the world would be better off if everyone agreed with him and has set about to make it so. When McCain was accurately criticized by third party interest groups, he set about restricting the first amendment. Now, because he was a prisoner of war who was tortured, he has decided to take moral high ground on how the United States treats enemy terrorists, though the United States does not torture terrorists. Nonetheless, McCain has chosen to believe terrorists in captivity and reporters bent on destroying the war effort than the military personnel who are keeping us safe.
John McCain is attempting to add to the appropriations process a provision that would prohibit the United States from doing to captured terrorists those things we are prohibited from doing to American citizens under the 5th, 8th, or 14th amendments to the United States Constitution. We will, in effect, be giving constitutional protections to enemy terrorists who, when given the opportunity, slowly saw off the heads (graphic violence) of captured Americans.
