Quote:
Originally Posted by SeattleUte
For the love of God, the President is the Commander in Chief of our armed forces. This may be our ultimate redeeming virtue, the commander in chief popularly elected by civilians. Truman made the decision to drop The Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was also Truman who fired his chief general, MacArthur, who wanted to use tactical nuclear weapons in Korea, for insubordination. The President has to have the scruples to draw the line on what is and is not torture, to follow international and domestic law in the treatment of prisoners, or no one else will. He's the check, the people's check. Otherwise expecting generals to not torture is like expecting coporations not to put profit aboove all else, not polluting, etc. People who think we're constitutionally incapable of sliding into the moral chasm of our predecessors are deluded. Decency at a national level takes discipline and constant moral vigilance.
This exchange between McCain and Romney is about the most appalling thing I've seen in an election. Anyone with a sense of history and the miracle that is our republic ought to be totally disgusted with Romney over that exchange.
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For me, it's not whether we should guard against structural evil, as I suppose most would agree that's a virtue. But what priority does an issue such as Gitmo deserve in light of all the other priorities? Do we focus upon an issue which so far has affected not one citizen to the exclusion of one affecting each and every citizen?
To me, it's a sense of a hierarchy of priorities and we're placing one with no immediate impact upon our citizens above those which affect all of us.