Thank you to Sid Schwab for his Sunday column, “The U.S. did torture and it did not work.”
He describes the non-partisan, “long-awaited, exhaustive (557-page) report on the U.S.’s use of torture in the aftermath of 9/11.”
The report provided conclusive evidence that the U.S. indeed engaged in torture, which it then tried to justify on the unsupportable claim that it yielded useful intelligence.
I agree that “the dishonesty of advocates of torture done in our name … is staggering.”
It included outright lies by our elected leaders and forms of torture even worse than waterboarding.
I also agree with his assessment that the report unfortunately received little media coverage, at least here in the U.S.
The column is especially timely following the Boston Marathon bombing, when ultra-conservatives are once again urging the administration to suspend our Constitution in their investigation of the bombing and the prosecution of the suspect(s).
Really? Must we surrender our Constitution with every terrorist event? Isn’t that what is supposed to make us “exceptional” compared to the other nations of the world?
I don’t see how we can have it both ways. Either we follow our Constitution and honor our laws and principles, or we become something less — much less.
It takes considerable journalistic courage in our political climate these days, to publish an opinion piece saying that America was wrong — about anything.
However, we will commit the same mistakes of the past if we cannot admit our own hypocrisy and find ways to prevent such mistakes from happening again.
I appreciate Mr. Schwab’s columns and I hope to see more of them
Eugene N. Bolin, Jr.
Edmonds
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