Rudy Likes Waterboarding
Rudy Giuliani is facing criticism from fellow candidate John McCain after refusing to call waterboarding torture.
“All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today,” Mr. McCain, who spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, said in a telephone interview.
Of presidential candidates like Mr. Giuliani, who say that they are unsure whether waterboarding is torture, Mr. McCain said: “They should know what it is. It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture.”
I’ve been absolutely disgusted over all this debate over whether or not it’s right for the United States to torture people. In my mind the only question is whether those who allow torture to happen should be tried here or just sent straight to The Hague.
I could go on forever listing why torture is wrong but, for me at least, the strongest argument is this: if we’re willing to sacrifice our decency and founding beliefs of our country in an effort to “protect” it than there is nothing left worth protecting. At that point we are no better than those we’re fighting.
But then, why should my opinion matter when people already refuse to listen to someone that’s experienced torture firsthand and says it isn’t worth it?
Source: McCain on Giuliani and waterboarding – The New York Times – MSNBC.com
