The Greater Threat

The American way of life, all that we believe in and stand for, has come under attack. This threat comes not from terrorists, but from our leadership’s response to them. Specifically, I am referring to Vice President Cheney’s proposal that would exempt the CIA from Senator John McCain’s measure barring the cruel and inhumane punishment of prisoners in our custody. This comes in the wake of veto threats for this measure that emerged from the White House immediately after its passage.

It is now clear that the current administration, beyond ignoring the mistreatment and abuse of prisoners, actually encourages and supports these actions. Abu Gharib should be a mystery no longer. This is despicable. By changing our policies to fly in the face of international law, by forfeiting our notions of human rights, justice, and due process, by altering our perspective to accept actions more becoming of a dictatorship than a liberal democracy, we in essence concede defeat to the terrorist. We admit that they have in fact changed how we live and have the ability to do so, that we now live in a fear so perpetual that we are willing to stoop to any base and immoral level to counter it.

I do not believe these things to be true - I think we as a nation are better, stronger, and more resolved than that. I believe that we can, we MUST again become the "city on the hill" to which other nations look for an example of democracy, justice, and what is right. However, by forgoing our core national values, as this administration seems hell bent on doing, we lose our credibility and moral authority around the world. We cannot achieve victory in the War on Terror by abandoning everything that we stand for.