Our fore-fathers who established what is now the United States of America stood tall and authored a constitution that set the country on a course of moral and political responsibility. And for over two centuries world leaders and people of the world have looked up to and admired the U.S. for its moral character.
The U.S. Senate report on CIA torture is a betrayal of America's high ideals and moral character and a major regression from the nations past leaders who understood that our strength and endurance as a people are rooted in a moral creed. Past Presidents have been eloquent on the subject matter and understood that dispite our many failures the U.S. was moral in its judgements and its policy towards others at home and abroad.
The report brought denials from those involved and former V.P. Dick Cheney even said he would do it again. Some republicans supported Cheney's position. Senator John McCain, a former POW who was tortured by his captors supported the report and its findings and said torture should never be accepted. Others said the report should not have been made public.
President Obama stood tall and banned torture after he took office. This writer ;pointed out in a recent commentary about the CIA, President Truman's remarks in a letter to the Washington Post when he said over 50 years ago, "There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our HISTORIC POSITION and I feel we need to correct it." President Truman knew what leadership was all about and that the President is the one person who has to set the example and lead. He fired General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War when the general disobeyed the President's orders. The buck stopped on President Truman's desk.
To those who believe the report should not have been made public lets turn to what President Kennedy said in a speech on the 20th anniversary of the Voice of America in February 1962. We are obliged to tell our story in a truthful way, to tell it, as Olivefr Cromwell said about his portrait, Paint us with all our blemishes and warts, all those things about us that may not be so immediately attractive. We compete with those who are our adversaries who tell only the good stories. But the things that go bad in America, you must tell that also. And we hope that the bad and the good is sifted together by people of judgement and discretion and taste and discrimination, that they will realize what we are trying to do here. We seek a free flow of information. We are not afraid to entrust the Ameican people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas,alien philosophies, and competitive values. for a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. President Kennedy was well aware of our nations values, morals and Historic positions.
President George W. Bush failed the test of a true leader in allowing the torture thing to happen and let it get out of hand. He denied torture during the time it was taken place and worst of all was still in denial after it was exposed. President Bush like so many in his administration wore their morality and religion on their sleeves for political reasons. True leaders on the other hand have the widsom to know the difference and govern with policies that represent what our nation and people are all about. There is no excuse for what happened on Bush's watch. WWII was a much larger problem for America than the problems Bush was dealing with but President's Roosevelt and Truman prosecuted that war with policies that defined who we are, our values, our moral responsibility, our ideals and our historic positions.
President Obama took the right first step, congress took the second step with the release of the report and now it is up to the President to follow up and future Presidents to never forget.
Note: See my previous commentary dagted 11/28/07 titled, Diplomacy: Democrats Force Reality On Bush where I write about moral responsibility.
This commentary written by John Lucia
