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There are some that insist by publicly debating covert tactics, the U.S. aides our foes in the war on terror. This position smacks of the semantics of fear that has become all too common place under the Bush regime. In truth and in fact the war on terror is a misnomer. We are not involved in a global war on terror. There is no terror army for us to engage. There are terrorists whom we must resist and stop, but not at all costs. We can ill-afford to suspend our Constitutional rights towards that end. We shouldn't allow fear to make us change our national character. Stopping terrorists is primarily a law enforcement function, occasionally a special operation of our armed forces might be necessitated. If we look at our successes in our so-called war on terror, they have largely been as a result of law enforcement, not our armies.

As for debating covert tactics, it has become necessary if Congress is to exercise its oversight responsibilities over a lawless Bush regime. Nine-Eleven, as terrible as it was, is no excuse for the legal abuses that the Bush administration has heaped upon the American people. The fact that Attorney General Michael Mukasey is unable to say whether water boarding is torture and is a violation of U.S. and international law is extremely troubling. Water boarding is torture and a clear violation of both. We are signatories to the Geneva Convention which bans that ugly practice. The disgraced former Attorney General Alberto "the liar" Gonzales attempted to make torture legal by fiat. The Bush administration seek to retroactively absolve itself of responsibility for its many illegal acts. The question that the Senate should be focusing on is, should the President be beyond the law that governs the rest of us, Nine-Eleven not withstanding.

Whether we torture or not should be no secret, We have gone through worst crisis as a nation without abandoning our founding principles and resorting to torture. Seventeen generals have said torture doesn't work. The information that one gets from torture is unreliable and if others know that we torture, they feel free to torture in kind. In other words there are no inherent benefits from torturing people. It further damages our international image. We are hated not because we're free, but rather because we are world class hypocrites. Under George Dubya Bush, there is little difference between us and the repressive regimes of which we were once so highly critical. We have become indistinguishable from those we once held in distain. How much of what used to make us unique are we prepared to give up for a false sense of safety. I say false because there was a an eight year lull between the bombing of the World Trade Center and Nine-Eleven. Those whom wish us harm are a patient lot. By torturing and spying on our own citizens we only play into their hands. We become the ugly Americans we once eschewed.

Learn more about this author, Cedric Mcclester.
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