SORE LOSERS AND SHORT MEMORY
1. Senator Barbara Boxer should be ashamed of herself for her charade on Thursday when she objected to certifying the election of President Bush (Cong Anthony Weiner, for his part has nothing to be proud of). If she desired a debate on election reform, this was the wrong time and the wrong platform. Someone should tell her the election is over and the people have spoken. The subsequent proceedings on this issue reminded me of my high school days in Student Council-not the Congress of the U.S.
2. I spent a good part of the day listening to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s questioning of Judge Gonzales during his nomination hearings, I was shocked to hear Sen. Kennedy lecture the nominee on the morality of putting water down a prisoner’s mouth and causing a drowning-like sensation. My first thought was Mary Jo --- need I say more?
After a day of Senate discussion on torture, I found little enlightenment on the subject. Of course everyone is against torturing prisoners, but that is not the issue. If a terrorist, who does not wear a uniform, nor serves in the armed services of a country has potential information that could save the world, a country, a city or innocent individuals by coercing him (or her) or by using appropriate and necessary torture how many would object?
The Talmud tells us of our obligation to kill those that seek to kill you. Surely we can use methods with less finality than death to save human life. If I or my family were the intended victim of a terrorists attack (sitting on a targeted airline etc.) I would want the interrogators to go all the way.
The difference between our society and that of the terrorists is the sanctity of human life.
Let us stop the hi-fallutin preaching on morality and let us change the Geneva Convention to reflect the situation at hand. -Open-ended torture--never; torture of prisoners who have no further information--an abomination; however, terrorists with real and potential information-let us trust our professionals provided they have supervision at the highest level of the chain of command, with a system of checks and balances (by special secret judicial panels) that corroborate the need in each specific case.
Our security demands no less and our civil rights as a society will be preserved. In these days of nuclear, biological and mass murder (9/11 ) threats, the old rules are great for a debating society.
