“GETTING ABOARD WATERBOARDING”

We don’t need Jack Bauer. Let the Fox "News" Commentators Test Drive Torture Techniques

The one and maybe only thing that made the US of A different from all the countries of the world and maybe of all history was that it stood for something more than just self interest or mere self protection. It stood for certain almost unique principles, one of which was that we do not torture. No matter the provocation, no matter the magnitude of the threat, no matter the strength or pervasiveness of the enemy, no matter the risk of delay or harm. We did not torture as official policy and we did not tolerate those who do. Simply calling it something else was never a defense. And, I have never understood why the current crop of "conservative" Republicans seems to hate so much what America once proudly stood for.

Here are a couple thoughts since it does not look like the Republican leadership and their followers will be satisfied until they get torture approved. If we must be like the Nazis, the Imperial Japanese, the Spanish Inquisition, and all the others who used such methods without qualm, let's at least insist on two preconditions.

First, no one can vote for or authorize any torture method unless they themselves, their spouse and their children are subjected to it first by a sadist. That might eliminate some of the worst methods. Second, as to any methods that are NOT first "tested" by and survived by those employing them, let's have some consequences. IF they are used for, say, the apocryphal justification of the ticking Atom bomb, then fine. Give the torturer a ticker tape parade, declare him a hero, thank him for his "saving humanity" (an interesting irony) and have the parade route deliver him straight to solitary confinement for the rest of his life since anyone doing that obviously is not fit to mingle with the rest of humanity. That way they get to call themselves "heroes", but we will not have to have such dangerous sociopaths in our midst.