Friday, November 02, 2007
Waterboarding and Mukasey
The waterboarding issue in connection with the confirmation of Judge Mukasey is 100% bogus.
The Legislative Branch has the power to pass a bill that would make waterboarding unqualifiedly illegal. Even if Bush vetoed such a bill and the veto were sustained, it would, I believe, give so much credence to critics of the United States, both domestic and foreign, that waterboarding would never be used, or if it were used, it would literally be in the situation where a nuclear bomb was known to be in an American city, and ready to detonate, and a terrorist in captivity was strongly suspected of knowing where it was. When millions of civilian lives are at stake, it would be appropriate.
What is clear from the Mukasey confirmation brouhaha is that those who want the Judge to declare the procedure to be illegal before being sworn in as AG don't have the political courage to take action themselves. How do we elect such gutless wonders to high office?
I don't know what other Presidents would do in that situation, but if I were in that office I would do everything in my power to get that bomb disarmed and/or the population evacuated, including waterboarding, whether or not illegal. On very rare occasions the stakes are so great that the end does justify the means, but only, in my view, in a situation that is equally as dire as that postulated above.
The Legislative Branch has the power to pass a bill that would make waterboarding unqualifiedly illegal. Even if Bush vetoed such a bill and the veto were sustained, it would, I believe, give so much credence to critics of the United States, both domestic and foreign, that waterboarding would never be used, or if it were used, it would literally be in the situation where a nuclear bomb was known to be in an American city, and ready to detonate, and a terrorist in captivity was strongly suspected of knowing where it was. When millions of civilian lives are at stake, it would be appropriate.
What is clear from the Mukasey confirmation brouhaha is that those who want the Judge to declare the procedure to be illegal before being sworn in as AG don't have the political courage to take action themselves. How do we elect such gutless wonders to high office?
I don't know what other Presidents would do in that situation, but if I were in that office I would do everything in my power to get that bomb disarmed and/or the population evacuated, including waterboarding, whether or not illegal. On very rare occasions the stakes are so great that the end does justify the means, but only, in my view, in a situation that is equally as dire as that postulated above.
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