From Professor John C. Yoo at University of California on Interrogation Methods Rejected by Military Win Bush’s Support . . .

“When you’re fighting a new kind of war against an enemy we haven’t faced before,” Professor Yoo said, “our system needs to give flexibility to people to respond to those challenges.”

Flexibility to respond here really boils down to what has traditionally been deemed as cruel and inhuman punishment. Extreme temperatures, stress positions, sleep deprivation . . . and more. The United States government’s adopted the Machiavellian position that the ends are justified by the means . . . torture is okay in the name of good.

My position on this is that it’s bullshit. Yes, we are indeed up against a foe the likes of which we have never known before . . . however, that does not justify us becoming the monster we decry. We have some culpability in the situation as it now stands and must reassess our role within the world and at home . . . advocating extreme physcical duress (a nice way of saying torture) is not upholding the values we claim to fighting to preserve.