For God’s Sake, Mr. President: VETO This McCain Monstrosity!
For God’s Sake, Mr. President: VETO This McCain Monstrosity!
The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal has a great piece on the URGENT need for President Bush to veto the McCain Amendment to a spending bill. (Hat tip: realclearpolitics.)
As the editorial points out, the McCain Amendment – although on the surface it sounds “innocuous” – would in reality seriously cripple the military’s ability to interrogate enemy prisoners effectively and meaningfully.
Here is an excerpt from the column:
The danger is that the McCain Amendment would only solidify what's already been a military overreaction to the Abu Ghraib scandal. In Iraq, that overreaction has meant that terror suspects cannot be aggressively interrogated at all. They cannot be held for more than several weeks after capture without charge. The insurgents know this, and thus know that they have little to fear if they fall into U.S. hands.
Much has been made of the support of Colin Powell and some other retired officers for the McCain Amendment. We've read Mr. Powell's open letter on the subject, and it is substance-free. It contains only an exhortation that Mr. McCain's gesture will somehow "help deal with the terrible public diplomacy crisis created by Abu Ghraib." In short, it's PR.
Far more impressive is the near-unanimous opposition to the McCain effort from commanders currently fighting the war on terror. They understand that the amendment will be interpreted as an unnecessary rebuke, and as a huge disincentive to push detainees hard when seeking information on "ticking bombs."
It is plain to see that this ill-conceived, ill-considered, and ill-timed amendment would go far toward locking into place a continuation of many of the politically-correct, ineffective, and unproductive military policies (e.g., the “catch-and-release” policy towards suspected terrorists so often followed in Iraq today) that this blog has raged against repeatedly.
Once, again, Mr. President: Time to FIGHT LIKE WE MEAN IT!
Veto this monstrosity!
The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal has a great piece on the URGENT need for President Bush to veto the McCain Amendment to a spending bill. (Hat tip: realclearpolitics.)
As the editorial points out, the McCain Amendment – although on the surface it sounds “innocuous” – would in reality seriously cripple the military’s ability to interrogate enemy prisoners effectively and meaningfully.
Here is an excerpt from the column:
The danger is that the McCain Amendment would only solidify what's already been a military overreaction to the Abu Ghraib scandal. In Iraq, that overreaction has meant that terror suspects cannot be aggressively interrogated at all. They cannot be held for more than several weeks after capture without charge. The insurgents know this, and thus know that they have little to fear if they fall into U.S. hands.
Much has been made of the support of Colin Powell and some other retired officers for the McCain Amendment. We've read Mr. Powell's open letter on the subject, and it is substance-free. It contains only an exhortation that Mr. McCain's gesture will somehow "help deal with the terrible public diplomacy crisis created by Abu Ghraib." In short, it's PR.
Far more impressive is the near-unanimous opposition to the McCain effort from commanders currently fighting the war on terror. They understand that the amendment will be interpreted as an unnecessary rebuke, and as a huge disincentive to push detainees hard when seeking information on "ticking bombs."
It is plain to see that this ill-conceived, ill-considered, and ill-timed amendment would go far toward locking into place a continuation of many of the politically-correct, ineffective, and unproductive military policies (e.g., the “catch-and-release” policy towards suspected terrorists so often followed in Iraq today) that this blog has raged against repeatedly.
Once, again, Mr. President: Time to FIGHT LIKE WE MEAN IT!
Veto this monstrosity!
posted by GunJam at 10:06 PM
2 Comments:
Bravo!!
Hi, sk! Thank you for your visit and post! I am getting fed up with Senator McPain -- aren't you? -- gunjam
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