Dear Senator Salazar,
The Geneva Conventions were created to protect those who are imprisoned because of acts of war, and it sets the standard for humanitarian behavior. 194 countries have ratified them, but now the Bush administration wants to redefine Article 3, the article that forbids captors to torture prisoners.
The documented abuses of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prove that Bush has neither the wisdom nor the morality to re-interpret treaties that have been accepted as civilized behavior since they were entered into force in October of 1950.
My father became a POW in April of 1942 when the Philippines fell to the Japanese army. Dad told us he survived his ordeal through his faith in God and his love for his country. The memories of the atrocities he endured plagued him until his death in 1973. What must he be thinking now? The country he fought for and believed in has been torturing prisoners, and the Supreme Court had to force the President to accept the Geneva Conventions.
In order to preserve the façade of Republican unity, Senators McCain and Warner and Representative Graham have reached an agreement with the Bush administration on tribunal laws. CIA agents won’t have to worry that they’ll be charged with war crimes if they get a little too rough while interrogating detainees. I agree with Senator McCain’s earlier view that allowing Bush to “define” the Geneva Conventions will only make the world a more dangerous place for us and for our soldiers. Other heads of state will follow Bush’s example and change the Conventions to suit their own needs.
Obviously terrorists don’t worry about the rights of their prisoners, nor do they respect innocent life. But we are supposed to be better than that; we are the moral compass for the world. How can we win the hearts and minds of Muslims when we are becoming exactly like the villains we are supposed to be fighting?
Respectfully,
Joan Cron
http://grandvalleylefty.blogspot.com/
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3 comments:
I make this comment with tears in my eyes and sorrow in my heart for the many who have suffered at the hands of torture and for our beloved country which has lost it's moral compass. I am deeply ashamed of the attitude that our government and many of our citizens have taken. Mean, selfish, thoughtless, stingy, immoral... Thank you for your letter.
Well, I hope the handful of people who viewed this blog appreciate it.
The Daily Sentinel hasn't published the version I sent to them, and today the Congress passed the "compromise."
I hope the Senate has more spine and more courage.
It's even more ironic that this legislation will be challenged in the Supreme Court, and it will be months, maybe years, before the evildoers are tried. Where's the closure in that? Who wins here?
The terrorists, they're the ones who win. Not only are things falling their way, but the good old U.S.A. is following their example.
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