Conservatives just can’t seem to give up on the torture issue. Karl Rove in a May 24 transcript from Fox News was asked if Obama didn’t seem to be caving into the Republican side on certain national security issues.  Rove took it as an opportunity to throw in a good word for torture. “I think there was a general recognition that these methods (torture) were useful only when time was a very valuable commodity and we were not getting cooperation,” Rove slyly inserted.
 
No matter how many times they are reminded torture is against the law and the Geneva Convention and therefore the Constitution (Article VI) Republicans can’t seem to give up the notion that it was justifiable to break the laws in the interests of American security (and there is much evidence to suggest it wasn’t, or even that false confessions were forced to bring the U.S. into war with Iraq). While these Republicans forget the values they once stood for, and ignore the laws they themselves help put in place, they cannot ignore the deeper reasons of why our Founding Fathers forbid such heinous acts, or the repercussions allowing them will have on our society.     
   
With the dawn of Christianity man began to look a little differently at torture than he had in the past. In ancient Greece and Rome, torture was accepted and integrated into the justice system. However, with Christianity’s peaceful influence it became clear torture could not abound in a just society. St. Thomas Aquinas, the great philosopher of the 13th century, brought to light a problem with torture for “information gathering” that is often overlooked today, but was not by our Founding Fathers. Punishing the innocent is never right St. Thomas logically deduced. Since, then, by its nature, using torture to obtain a confession involves the physical punishment of a possibly innocent man, it is wrong. As we learned from Murat Kurnaz and multiple other innocent victims of the American torture chambers, with “enhanced interrogation methods” the innocent are punished with the guilty, waterboarding is no substitute for a trial.
 
Even more basic, though, is the principle St. Thomas and other philosophers say must be applied to all our actions if society is to be ordered; “the end does not justify the means.” This is the key to understanding American justice, and why false conservatives are leading America in the wrong direction. If the end did justify the means then anything would be permissible and law would be meaningless. If detainees are tortured to gain information despite laws against it, what is to stop the government from infringing on our freedoms with impunity for the sake of national security?

But of course, with the new laws regarding warrantless searches and seizures in the airports, fusion centers etc., that is exactly what is happening. Government has coaxed the people into believing that the Constitution can be disregarded for a good cause — the end justifying the means — and by doing so is leading us into slavery. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the road to slavery is paved with ideas of freedom from fear.

Catherine Mullins is a freelance writer and essayist.

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Peter Steele said:

The road to hell is paved with good intentions My late father said that statement with regard to the Soviet Union and Red China as far as communists go. He used the ten commandments which the communists violate to advance communism. He said to the Christian Freedom Foundation that we have to Caesar's work in diplomacy and the religious people do not compromise with aetheists and communists. For that he went to Heaven. Carter shortened my Dad's life.

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June 03, 2009
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MarkGlen said:

	A Big Mystery It is a big mystery to me how we have remained a free nation with all the leftists we have and have had in government.
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June 03, 2009 | url
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Pat Henry said:

GOP following its head The Republicans came to power on Lincoln's coattails, he who set aside the Constitution, habeas corpus, and had political prisoners. All the for Union, of course. Including the unjust persecution of the South as it were a foreign conquered power after the war (and its wanton destruction in the late "marches," also against principles of Just War). So this is nothing new. Same old, same old. Of course, today's Democrats are no better. What we need, as in those days, is a good 4 way race next election. The Republicans trounced the Whigs (the second party then, never heard from again) and won with far less than even 40% of the popular vote. Constitution and Libertarian, take note!

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June 03, 2009
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MarkGlen said:

A Real Issue Republicans need a real issue Republicans need a real issue if they hope to take back congress the next election. I think crude oil exploration and production here in the U.S.A. is that issue. Because crude oil has doubled in price in the last 3 months and at the pumps gasoline has gone from $1.35 per gallon to $2.48 per gallon here in our city. We import 40% of our crude oil and 25% of that from Saudi Arabia (OPEC). And when OPEC cuts back on production the cost of crude rises proportionally. That means that an oil supplier that contributes only 15% of our crude oil imports tells us what to charge at the gasoline pumps. Now, if a political candidate cannot make an issue of this they are either too dumb or too mousy to represent us in congress

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Trouble said:

	... Dear Catherine, I heard that only 3 "terrorists" were waterboarded and they were already proven to be guilty. I never heard of the innocent being tortured. I am very confused about this issue now! Please provide more details. Thank you.
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June 08, 2009
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