Wednesday, January 21, 2009

No more torture!

My heart swelled when I read this:
A second executive order [by President Barack Obama] will formally ban torture by requiring the Army field manual be used as the guide for terror interrogations, essentially ending the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods.
Then I had to stop and think - I'm getting excited over the fact that torture will be now, again, illegal. The brutalization of bodies for information (and possibly fun) is returning to the dark, illegal place where it used to live before President Bush, VP Cheney and Karl Rove.

And then I get a little sad for the fact that I'm excited we're respecting human rights.

Torture is a moral issue and wrong. If there's anything that gets as close to clear-cut cases of right and wrong, this is it.

2 comments:

Amelia said...

I totally feel for you on being weirded out that we're excited that torture is being put in its place. But at least its showing that we now have a president who is making it clear that human rights matter to him. That is something to be excited about.

Anonymous said...

I've got nothing to add to what you both said, Lindsay and Amelia, I just wanted to say that I feel similarly. :S