We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
The Declaration of Independence
Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the United States’ national security apparatus adopted new approaches to secure the nation. No one at that time knew what else terrorists would attempt, but most people, from the national security experts to school children, expected more terror. Security forces scrambled for information that might prevent these attacks that almost everyone assumed were imminent.
Some branches of our government may have allowed information gathering to go too far. Some people may have broken the law, and in the U.S. we are a nation of law. We treasure law because we have a Constitution that is the basis of our freedom. As a result, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the interrogation techniques used on detainees by the CIA and contractors.
This investigation will be a difficult phase in U.S. history. Investigators will analyze actions taken in the post 9-11 era based on years of hindsight that officials did not have at that time. Regardless of the quaint old saying, hindsight is not at all 20/20; it too is politicized.
Despite my concerns, this investigation is needed because the U.S. continues to struggle to do what is right, not what is easy.
I wonder if any of our nation’s enemies, those that still want to commit terrorist acts against us, will understand what is happening here in the United States and how allowing this investigation shows our enemies that our nation has a quality of courage beyond anything they can ever know. I don’t see how they can possibly understand this concept. It is about ideals, human rights, and courage. Since this blog is read world-wide, I’ll try to explain.
Our nation is entering a period that will be very painful. Some people may be justly punished, others are certain to be made scapegoats. Some people will be accused of evading punishment. The process will be faulty because it is a human process and thus subject to human frailty.
In the longer term, these torture investigations will be another step in the American Revolution. The American Revolution did not end at Yorktown in 1781. The ideals live on in our continuing struggle to do what is right. Our nation stands for human rights, individual rights, and dignity; ideals, concepts, that our enemies lack the ability to grasp.
That we will struggle through this painful investigation, manage it through a process set in law, and know that all sides will be fighting to make the U.S. a better place, should cause the entire world to watch closely, because after the pain, this investigation will make us better. Understand that this investigation is part of a larger goal of continually rising above what our enemies represent.
A nation so steeped in the principles of human rights that it will investigate its own people for abusing enemies is a nation that truly believes in its laws. A nation that struggles to bring out the truth, even when that truth may be ugly, is a nation that has courage. A nation that wrestles with itself over the conflict between security and principles is a nation that has a quality of courage beyond anything that can be understood by those that believe that courage involves guns, bombs, and targeting innocents.
Our enemies may understand some of these points, but until they recognize the courage it takes to strive for the sentence below, from our Constitution, they have no idea what they are up against.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union….
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I only wish I could feel as positive about the course of our country as you do, Robert. The U.S. does what is expedient. It is no longer a leader, it is a panderer. The “nation of laws” that you state should investigate the interrogation techniques is the same “nation of laws” that opted to give billions of dollars to bankers who caused our economic crisis and requires it’s population to pay taxes on money that is not even there. So I am not impressed with our “nation of laws” as it currently stands in it’s diluted and deluded condition.
Our enemies in the Middle East will only see this investigation as proof that we are weak.
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