Sully nails Rudy for his recent foreign policy speech. He asks an important question. Giuliani says that, if the Democrats are elected, “We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-Sept. 11 attitude of defense.”
So, Sullivan asks, "does Giuliani support the Bush-Cheney policy of detainee imprisonment without charges, rendition, abuse, and torture?" I think that's a critical question.
This administration has sanctioned torture, and it has been a stain on the honor of the United States. I'm not naive -- I know that torture happened before now. But this is the first President who has embraced torture as a matter of policy. It's wrong, and it's dangerous, and it's stupid. What they don't understand is that Islamic terrorists are not an existential threat to the United States. They can kill Americans, and yes, we should take steps to fight Islamic jihadism. But they can't take our freedom or our honor. Only we can do that.
Ronald Reagan used to call America a "shining city on a hill." But you can't be a shining city on a hill if you have a torture chamber in the basement.
Whoever the next President is, he -- or she -- must erase this stain on our national honor. I fear that a President Guiliani would be a dangerous authoritarian, an even meaner George W. Bush with a higher IQ.
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Cheerful, you wrote...But this is the first President who has embraced torture as a matter of policy.
What do you make of Bush coming out and saying "we do not torture?" Isn't it interesting that he can come out and say that and water down all the waterboarding. When Bush said that, I don't recall anyone mentioning he was inaccurate, do you?
Why not?
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