White House to Accept Torture Ban

10 years ago, did you ever think you'd have to see that headline?

Anyway, the word today (not confirmed, but pretty much a done deal) is that the White House is going to accept the McCain torture ban. This isn't, of course, because the White House truly stands against the practice of torture. God/Bush forbid.

Rather, they are just accepting the reality that overwhelming support for the ban in the Senate and House makes the bill veto-proof. Besides, would Bush really have made his first veto ever against a torture ban? Most people said no but I bet he would have. That's how he rolls.

I cannot express how insane this all is to me. The fact that this was a necessary debate to begin with is horrifying enough, but it was made worse by the White House's strong resistance to the ban, as well as their use of semantics to defend themselves (torture is illegal, and we don't call what we do 'torture', therefore we don't torture or break the law).

Sure, war is a nasty bit of business and things happen that we don't want to know about, but our actions in this war crossed the line (and then tortured it) and cost us some of the moral high ground. No one doubts that in the case of an immediate threat (the old '24' scenario that's as likely to happen as you getting by a bus), we do have to look the other way and use unpleasant methods to get the information needed to stop it. This, however, is not what was happening.

Torture has been systematic. Much like war used to be a last resort, but now is considered the first resort, torture (something we condemned Saddam for) was believed only acceptable (if then) as an absolute last resort. Instead it has been used a standard interrogation tool... and in the case of Abu Ghraib, a fun way for stressed out troops to pass the time. As the al-Libi, Jose Padilla, and other examples show, torture is simply not effective and counterproductive to the war. Not to mention, gee ya know, it's immoral and illegal and makes us no better than those we fight. But who cares about morality. Lets the libs worry about that PC garbage.

So this is a good victory. Potentially only a symbolic one, I fear. For the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld cabal will not stop the practice of torture, they will simply work twice as hard now to hide it. For instance, we already know that they have added an addendum to the Army Field Manual to better permit torture. If this torture ban is to be anything but lip service, Congress needs to investigate all claims and hold the White House's feet to the fire (and maybe even waterboard them a little) to enforce this ban.

Still, a good victory for the American people and a loss for the zealots in the White House.

AP: Sources: White House to Accept Torture Ban

After months of resistance, the White House has agreed to accept Sen. John McCain's call for a law specifically banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror, several congressional officials said Thursday.

Under the emerging deal, the CIA and other civilian interrogators would be given the same legal rights as currently guaranteed members of the military who are accused of breaking interrogation guidelines, these officials added. Those rules say the accused can defend themselves by arguing it was reasonable for them to believe they were obeying a legal order...