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 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?
I suppose the frontrunner is the anti-torture amendment. Sen. John McCain
proposed an amendment to the military appropriations bill that would prohibit
"cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of prisoners in the
custody of the U.S. military.
This may strike you as a "goes without saying" proposition --
the amendment passed the Senate 90 to nine. 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.
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?
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 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.
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 SS, not the North Vietnamese
who tortured McCain and others for years on end, not bestial Argentinean
fascists, not the Khmer Rouge.
Remember, we invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein was such a horrible brute
that he tortured people. This is beyond disgusting. The House
Republicans, which 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-Qaida
and managed to defeat them without resorting to torture.
And leading the charge in the House will be Tom DeLay, 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 last Friday, twisting arms and working the floor on behalf
of a real cutie of a bill to benefit the oil companies.
Even Republicans revolted. As Rep. Sherwood Boehlert said, "We are
enriching people, but we are not doing anything to give the little guy
a break." This bill was so awful the leadership had to hold the vote
open for 40 minutes, a clear violation of House rules -- there's a five-minute
limit on votes of this kind -- while the Republican leaders roamed the
floor, cajoling, bullying and threatening.
I have become inured to Bush's idea of foreign policy, which is to tell
the rest of the world, "Kiss my behind." But the policy does
result in some lovely ironies. On Friday, Mohamed ElBaradei, the highly
respected head of the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency,
won the Nobel Peace Prize. Quite apart from whether you support George
Bush or not, ElBaradei and the IAEA deserve the honor -- they have been
both diligent and effective.
ElBaradei was right when he repeatedly warned the Bush administration
Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction and has said the day
the United States invaded "was the saddest in my life."
But you know our boy George: not for him the gracious, "Gee, you
were right, and we 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.
Liar of the week: George W. Bush said on his Saturday radio address a
week and a half ago that Iraq has 100 battalions of battle-ready soldiers.
By the time he got to his television address on Thursday, it was 80 battalions.
(I guess it's worse to lie if they're taking pictures of you.) Unfortunately,
the next day Gen. George Casey, who oversees U.S. forces in Iraq, said
of those 80, the number of Iraqi battalions fit to fight independently
of U.S. support had slipped from three to one. One, three, 80, 100 --
if this is Tuesday, it must be ...
