If you have visited London, and used the Underground public transportation system, you’re probably familiar with the recorded voice that advises, as you enter a train, “Mind the gap”.
I’m reminded of that voice as I read this morning that the Pentagon has, belatedly, banned the use of torture by its soldiers. Mind the gap.
Conspicuously, the ban on torture does not apply to agents of the American government who work with the Pentagon. The CIA, for example, is exempt from the new ban.
Funny, isn’t it, how President Bush and Vice President Cheney have specifically requested Congress to exempt the CIA from any ban on torture. Why, it’s as if the CIA is already torturing people, isn’t it?
As luck would have it, it is already against the law for any member of the United States government to conduct or order others to conduct torture. There is an American law that makes it illegal for the President to violate the terms of the Geneva Conventions. The new torture ban passed by the Senate and under consideration by the House of Representatives is merely a reiteration. It’s a very useful reiteration of America’s values, but legally speaking, it is not necessary. Torture is already banned.
So, if President Bush knows that the CIA is torturing prisoners, and he’s trying to protect the CIA’s ability to do so, then President Bush is breaking the law. He’s not just breaking any little old law either. He’s breaking federal law, and committing war crimes. That plainly fits into the category of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Earlier this morning, I wrote about the humiliation of Kansas by religious members of its Board of Education who insist on replacing science education with medieval hocus pocus spiritualism. Well, what the Kansas Board of Education has done to the reputation of Kansas, Bush’s regime of torture has done to the reputation of the United States of America. It’s time to stop the torture, and impeach Bush, so that he can never humiliate America again.
