Last week the US Senate voted overwhelmingly (90-9) to stand solidly against torture. The amendment, introduced by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), calls for prisoners and detainees to be treated according to guidelines established by the Army Field Manual. In short, it outlaws degrading and inhumane treatment of anyone in US military custody. McCain’s bill, as The Nation writes this week in the magazine’s lead editorial, “stands as a singular legislative attempt to corral Bush into compliance with international law and human rights standards.”
Politically, McCain has played this well. The amendment was appended to the massive defense appropriations bill. Consequently, passage of the $440 billion defense budget depends on the adoption of this vital amendment. Nonetheless, President Bush has threatened to veto the entire piece of legislation in order to kill the anti-torture amendment. This despite a recent report by Human Rights Watch documenting US soldiers’ accounts of abuses against detainees committed by troops of the 82nd Airborne stationed at Forward Operating Base Mercury (FOB Mercury), near Fallujah. (Click here to read, and circulate, it in full.)
For once, the Senate has done the right thing. Now, a coalition of groups, led by FaithfulAmerica.org, an online community of progressive people of faith, is calling for all Americans to ask their Senators to stand strong against the president’s threatened pro-torture veto.
From every angle, this veto would be a disaster: It would hurt US standing in the world, serve to enable the torture of innocent people, and likely fail to produce actionable information even if applied on someone plotting terror attacks. (The counter-productiveness of torture in strategic terms was driven home by the bill’s endorsement by more than two dozen retired military officers, including Colin Powell and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili.)
McCain and his colleagues are trying to extricate the government from direct complicity in war crimes. Join them by clicking here to send a letter of support to your Senators on this issue.
