World doubts America

 

If U.S. loses moral battle, it loses the war

 

"The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism."

 

The words come not from a left-wing blogger or a Democratic candidate on the campaign trail. No, the words express the sentiments of former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, and they refer to attempts last week by President George Bush to turn the Geneva Conventions on their head.

            In a dramatic appeal to win support for what he termed "an alternative set of procedures" for interrogation, the president paid a rare visit to Congress.

            He was seeking legislative backing to permit coerced evidence, secret hearings and the use of overseas prisons where detainees would be interrogated with the most horrific of methods, including hypothermia and "waterboarding," a euphemism for simulated drowning.

            To this end, Bush is hoping Congress will act to exempt the United States from the section of the Geneva Conventions that bans assaults on human dignity—particularly humiliating and degrading treatment of prisoners.

            The conventions are a series of treaties and protocols that set the standard for international law. Close to 200 countries have agreed to abide by their regulations, which essentially prohibit physical or mental torture as well as cruel and degrading corporal punishment.

            These are the provisions the president seeks to circumvent.

            To their credit, many military experts, political insiders and members of Congress are objecting—and a good number of the objectors come from within the president's own party.

            In addition to Powell, they include Sen. John McCain and Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, as well as top Pentagon officials whose concerns are both philosophical and practical.

            In a letter to Warner, top-ranking military experts expressed "profound concern" that if the United States manhandles its prisoners, American soldiers are subject to the same treatment.

            Furthermore, reputable intelligence operatives say it's foolish to rely on any information obtained through torture. A victim of beatings—or worse—will say anything to get his captors to ease up.

            As important as these concerns are, there is a bigger question here, and it's the one Colin Powell, himself a former chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff, raises in his eloquent opposition to the plans of his former boss.

            This is not who we are as a people.

            This is not how we want the world to see us, nor how we want to see ourselves.

            The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, showed Americans they are dealing with the vilest of enemies, men and women who would go to any lengths to make their hideous point.

            But even the most hawkish generals engaged in the battle against these terrorists acknowledge that for the United States to lose its way morally does not further the cause of security, nor the ideals of democracy.

            The values that define us are the strongest weapons we have in that battle.