Saturday, September 16, 2006

Are We Moral?

The debate now going on in Congress over President Bush's right to redefine torture according to his view of the world could be a defining moment for the U.S. Do we continue to stand above other nations in the setting of standards for freedom and respect for the average man (or woman) or do we sink to the bottom with nations that plumb the depths?

A few strong willed representatives in Washington are making the stand. Let us hope they prevail.

An excellent editorial on this issue was posted on the Huffington Post by Nathan Gardels.
Read more here.

And here's a sample...



McCain's view, like the Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, is that America is exceptional precisely because it has strived, unlike other great powers in the past, not to exempt itself from rules of law and codes of conduct in the name of its own interests simply because it has the power to do so. Haven't all the great philosophers of the West argued that restraint is the wisest aim of the free and powerful?

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