- AUSTIN, Texas -- On one of
those television gong shows that passes for journalism, the panelists used
to have to pick an Outrage of the Week. Then, each performer would wax
indignant about his or her choice for 60 seconds or so. If someone asked
me to name the Outrage of the Week about now, I'd have a coronary. How
could anyone possibly choose?
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- I suppose the frontrunner is the anti-torture amendment.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) proposed an amendment to the defense appropriations
bill that would prohibit "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment
of prisoners in the custody of the U.S. military.
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- This may strike you as a "goes without saying"
proposition--the amendment passed the Senate 90 to 9. The United States
has been signing anti-torture treaties under Democrats and Republicans
for at least 50 years. But the Bush administration actually managed to
find some weasel words to create a loophole in this longstanding commitment
to civilized behavior.
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- According to the Bushies, if the United States is holding
a prisoner on foreign soil, our soldiers can still subject him or her to
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment--the very forms of torture used
by the soldiers who were later prosecuted for their conduct at Abu Ghraib.
Does this make any sense, moral or common?
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- So deeply does President Bush feel our country, despite
all its treaty commitments, has a right to torture that he has threatened
to veto the bill if it passes. This would be the first time in five years
he has ever vetoed anything. Think about it: Five years of stupefying pork,
ideological nonsense, dumb administrative ideas, fiscal idiocy, misbegotten
energy programs--and the first thing the man vetoes is a bill to pay our
soldiers because it carries an amendment saying, once again, that this
country does not torture prisoners.
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- This is the United States of America. It is our country,
not George W. Bush's personal property. The United States of America still
stands for the rights of man, for freedom, dignity and justice. We do not
torture helpless prisoners. Our soldiers are not the Nazi Waffen SS, not
the North Vietnamese who tortured McCain and others for years on end, not
bestial Argentinean fascists, not the Khmer Rouge.
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- Remember, we invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein was
such a horrible brute that he tortured people. This is beyond disgusting.
The House Republicans, who have no shame, will try to weaken McCain's amendment.
They need to hear from decent Republicans all over this country. Don't
leave this hideous stain on your party's name. This is not what America
stands for. We've had more loathsome and more dangerous enemies than Al
Qaeda and managed to defeat them without resorting to torture.
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- And leading the charge in the House will be Rep. Tom
DeLay (R-Texas), that pillar of moral rectitude and Christian mercy. Wait
a minute: Didn't DeLay have to step down from his leadership position after
he got indicted? Well, yes, but some step-downs are more down than others.
There was "The Hammer" in full glory Friday, twisting arms and
working the floor on behalf of a real cutie of a bill to benefit the oil
companies.
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- Even Republicans revolted. As Rep. Sherwood Boehlert
(R-N.Y.) said, "We are enriching people, but we are not doing anything
to give the little guy a break." I have become inured to Bush's idea
of foreign policy. But the policy does result in some lovely ironies. On
Friday, Mohamed ElBaradei, the highly respected head of the UN's International
Atomic Energy Agency, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Quite apart from whether
you support Bush or not, ElBaradei and the IAEA deserve the honor--they
have been both diligent and effective.
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- ElBaradei was right when he repeatedly warned the Bush
administration that Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction and
has said the day the United States invaded "was the saddest in my
life."
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- But you know our boy George: not for him the gracious,
"Gee, you were right, and we were wrong after all." Nope, after
ElBaradei was proved right, Bush tried to have him fired. And the man in
charge of carrying out the campaign to have the guy fired for being right?
John Bolton, now our ambassador to the United Nations.
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- Molly Ivins is a syndicated columnist based in Austin,
Texas
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