Shame

If this is true, then I am truly and deeply ashamed to be represented by this administration:

The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Conventions that explicitly bans “humiliating and degrading treatment,” according to knowledgeable military officials.

— Baltimore Sun, June 5, 2006

“The overall thinking,” […] “is that they need the flexibility to apply cruel techniques if military necessity requires it.”

— LA Times, June 5, 2006.

There is no excuse for this. None.

We, the USA, are a good country only if our actions are, by and large, good. “If the president does it, then it’s legal,” said Nixon. No. There is a system. A rule of law. And a code of ethics. If we do not follow them, then we are not good. We do not possess inherent goodness that miraculously makes our actions good, whatever they may be. The tail does not wag the dog. We are what we do. And today, we torture.

Andrew Sullivan nails it with his latest column “The horrors really are your America, Mr Bush.” What a shameful day. What a horrible, horrible turn of events.