Thursday, December 27, 2007
Editorial: Torture is un-American
Sen. John McCain has a proposal for a corps of specialized interrogators to ensure America doesn't think it needs to torture suspects.
From the RoundTable blog
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America should never torture prisoners, even suspected terrorists.
"These tools are not American tools and the easy way is not the American way," said Republican presidential candidate John McCain during a commencement address at Newbury College in South Carolina.
Yes, these are dangerous times, and "enhanced interrogation techniques" may occasionally provide information that could disrupt terrorism plots and save lives.
But McCain, who knows all too well the realities of torture, believes there is a better way. He proposes a 20,000-strong corps of soldiers trained in strategic interrogation.
The corps would include speakers of Arabic, Chinese, Farsi and other strategically important languages trained in reliable and tested interrogation techniques.
If successful, the corps would ensure that "we never have to feel motivated to torture anyone ever again," McCain said.
McCain's opposition to torture doesn't merely stem from his first-hand experience with it, or from his belief that it violates fundamental American values.
He is concerned that the belief that America engages in torture will endanger American soldiers in future conflicts and aid extremist groups' efforts to enlist anti-American fighters.
McCain said he met with a high-ranking member of al-Qaida in Iraq who told him that the prisoner-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib was "a great recruitment tool."
In a 2005 column in Newsweek magazine, McCain acknowledged that al-Qaida and other terrorists have no qualms about engaging in torture, or worse.
But America shouldn't lose sight of its basic values, especially when doing so could jeopardize the treatment of soldiers in future conflicts. "We should not undermine today our defense of international prohibitions against torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners of war that we will need to rely on in the future," McCain wrote.
The knowledge that their values separated them from their tormentors helped McCain and his fellow prisoners-of-war endure the torture they were subjected to during the Vietnam war.
"But every one of us -- every single one of us -- knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or approving such mistreatment of them." McCain wrote.
In facing the current adversity, America needs the same sort of courage and commitment to fundamental values that these brave men demonstrated.
