The Torture Obsession

On the torture question we have not, as we ought to have, held to the moral high ground in the struggle to prevent terrorism. We can afford still to hold this ground and ought to hold it, even at the inescapable risk of paying a tangible price. Instead, we have begun the descent toward the moral level of the enemy. And the further we proceed on this path the closer we come to aiding and abetting the enemy in our defeat. I define defeat as the destruction of our culture and value system, and, thus, by definition whatever is necessary to sustain their existence. Survival of our government and national borders and military, at the cost of the destruction of this essential core is not an end for which I would fight or sacrifice. The Bush people apparently believe that the Anti-Terror struggle can be won without resort to the public relations campaign that was a major element in our victory in the Cold War. In this they are dunces. P.R. is even more important in this struggle than it was in the Cold War, because information is much more easily disseminated now than it was then. And virtually all the terrorists seem to be ideologically-motivated volunteers--as few Soviet soldiers were. Torture, rendition, detention without trial, heavy-handed encroachments upon the rights of American citizens--all of these tactics function as the most effective P.R. for the terrorists and Islamo-fascists.