Pro-Torture Bill Passes

So, as a follow-up to my previous post, it appears that the Senate has come up with, and passed, a detainee bill that enables torture. I say that it enables torture based on the way it was written. This bill bans torture but allows Bush and his administration to define torture. Wasn't this the problem before? Wasn't Bush the one who refused to call what the CIA did to the detainees "torture"? Didn't he relabel it "alternative" or "tough" interrogation techniques? From where I stand, Sens. McCain, Warner, and Graham capitulated. They can go home, touting their independence at standing up to the administration while allowing Bush to continue his "tough" interrogation techniques, thereby making conservatives happy.

Do these senators really expect Bush to stop his prior torturing of detainees? Let's look at Bush's choices. After signing this bill into law, he can call waterboarding and other techniques "torture" and, thus, prevent the CIA from using them. However, in doing that, he will be admitting, by logical extension, that his administration was, in fact, torturing detainees prior to the passage of this bill. We know this administraion and we know that ain't going to happen.

His other alternative is to exclude the already used techniques from the definition of "torture". In so doing, he can claim that his administration does not, nor ever did, torture detainees.

How convenient of the Senate, particularly McCain, Warner, and Graham, to hand him the English language on a platter for him to redefine words as he sees fit. If only we could all do that. The Senate's plan on this is analagous to handing a known cheater a blank rulebook and saying, "Now you write the rules and make sure you follow them!"

As I said in previous post, it does not matter how you label these techniques. They are torture and they are wrong. No matter how minor or major the torture, it is still wrong. What will happen a year from now when the media report that the Bush administration is still permitting waterboarding and other "questionable" techniques? Will the Senators feign shock and surprise? Claim to be outraged? Most likely. Will they engage in any sort of self-examination? Absolutely not.