Lessenberry on Torture

Yet another brave American is stepping forward and speaking the truth a la Keith Olbermann. Metro Times columnist Jack Lessenberry weighs in on torture, the Bush administration, and those of us who complacently sit on the sidelines and say nothing.

Last week, in a move that should have all Americans who still care about freedom screaming as loud as they can, Congress passed a bill that essentially gives the president's bully boys the right to torture suspects.

They just can't call it that. Oh, and we can't legally rape our victims. Of course, since detainees have no automatic right to counsel, it isn't clear how anyone would find out they were being raped, unless we have another batch of enlisted men stupid enough to take pictures of themselves in the act. [...]

[Bush] is trampling on the rights this nation always has stood for, and we are sitting here like cattle, each placidly chewing our cud until they come to load us on the truck. [...]

So while I still can, let me tell you what I really think. I believe the Bush administration is a far bigger threat to America's rights and freedoms, and the peace of the world, than any silly gang of terrorists.

I think the essence of America is guaranteeing a free trial and assuming that anyone is innocent until proven guilty — even if they are aliens, even if they are fanatic radical Muslims in other lands, even if they are Republican congressmen who want to molest little boys.

I think that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have killed far more people and have done far more damage to our nation than al-Qaeda has. I think that our nation and the world would be immeasurably better off if Bush and Cheney were in Abu Ghraib, or Guantanamo, than it is with them making our nation's policies.

And I believe Bush and Cheney's actions are deeply un-American.

I agree, but do Americans really care or listen? What more will it take before we call for accountability?

I'm not really sure we can save ourselves after reading about Rep. Mark Foley and the GOP's attempts to spin the story when they should have been acting swiftly and decisively to protect our children. We should be outraged by their actions. Even among convicts there is a pecking order, and pedophiles are at the bottom of the list. Our children are sacred and Americans have every right to expect our government to protect them. However, as Lessenberry points out:

Yet now we learn that the House leadership had known about these e-mails, some of them anyway, for almost a year. Nevertheless, they allowed Foley to remain head of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.

That alone ought to be enough to bring down the government in any civilized country, no matter how weak and muddled the opposition might be.

We're not as civilized as we think we are if we can't put our precious children above politics.