American Law

Ok, I really hadn't planned on writing anything today, and I know that I already commented on this story, but the more I find out, the more pissed off I get. So I guess I'm gonna vent.

This whole story with the secret CIA death squad is absolutely infuriating to me. Here's the basic story, for those who don't know. Recently, CIA Director Leon Panneta informed Congress that the CIA had been running a secret counterterrorism unit that reported only to former VP Dick Cheney. As soon as he found out, Panneta informed Congress. This is bad because anything that the CIA does is supposed to be reported to Congress, by law. This is called oversight. It's part of on the foundations of our government, the balance of powers. Now, I have a deep respect for the laws of this country, and I believe nobody is exempt from them. Not you, not me, not George Bush, not Barack Obama. Anyone who breaks a law should be punished. Especially if they break them willingly. The fact that Cheney decided he was above our Constitution pisses me off to no end. Obviously, if Cheney felt the need to conceal it from a Republican-majority Congress, then he must have been doing something wrong. Let me play out a scenario for you. Reportedly, this unit was built to conduct secret operations inside other countries, and we weren't planning on informing the other countries that we had a unit inside their borders. So, lets say that this unit is sent on a mission deep inside North Korea. During their operation, they are discovered and captured. North Korea would undoubtably consider an armed American military unit in their country an act of war. Before we had any clue what was happening, North Korea would have all the reason they ever needed to start shooting nuclear bombs at our west coast. Even if we beat North Korea in a long-term war, we have severe devastation on out west coast, and our standing with the rest of the world is permanently damaged. This is bad, because regardless of what some right-wingers want you to believe, we cannot survive as a country if we have no allies. We have to be on good terms with other countries, for security and trade reasons, among other things. I am sick and tired of hearing a new story every week reporting that the Bush Administraion broke another law. This shows an utter lack of disrespect for the country I love and cherish, and the fact that someone we elected to office decided he wasn't gonna play by the rules is humiliating. We chastise and criticize countries where rulers ignore their own laws. But for the past eight years, we were no better than any of these countries. I am tired of America being seen as a bad guy in so much of the world. I long for the days I read about in history books, when Amercia was respected and looked upon as a paragon of virtue and all that was good. This argument also applies to torture. According to the Geneva Treaty, which we helped write and sign, torture is illegal. Not only is torture illegal, but it is wrong. I don't care who is in custody, no one should be tortured. It is an immoral practice. If it wasn't, we wouldn't debate it. And if you don't buy the morality issue, look at it this way: if the country we are fighting sees that we are ok with torturing their guys, what do you think they will do to our soldiers? We have an obligation, as the biggest and most influential country on the planet, to hold ourselves to a higher standard than torture. As I recently heard a minister say, "Who would Jesus torture?"
I absolutely dare anyone to argue with me about any of this. Because I know that I am on the moral highground on this issue. Torture is wrong. Lying is wrong. You cannot debate this. You also cannot debate the fact that Republicans consistently brand themselves as morally higher than the rest. But after torture, lying, extramarital affairs, and a war that was initiated by the use of deceit and backstabbing, I am begining to wonder where morality actually resides in our country.