No Torture Bill in America!!

Readers continue to complain about the recent speech by Venezuelan President Chavez. At the same time we see no complaints about the torture bill winding its way through Congress at the behest of the President. Why are we so intent on complaining about the words of a foreign president when our country is in real danger of further eroding its moral standing in the world?

The bill now being considered in both houses of Congress would allow our government to bypass rules established by the Geneva Conventions. The bill would allow various means of interrogation which have long been considered torture by most reasonable people. The bill would also give retroactive protection to those members of the military and the CIA who may have illegally performed such tortures in the past. We cannot allow this to happen.

Our moral standing in the international community is at an all time low as a result of our invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq and the publicized mistreatment of prisoners. That we even allow discussion of the proposed torture bill is unconscionable. That our legislators may allow such a bill to pass is beyond imagining. Let foreign presidents rail as they will, we have larger fish to fry on our own soil.