Our politicians are still missing the point

Intel firestorm: GOP reveals briefing info

Regardless of how it's clear that the torture subject has turned into a political charade as evidence by the discussion of what was considered sensitive or even classified information by some GOP members, everyone is still missing the point.

The contention should not be whether torture (please stop calling it "enhanced interrogations", it's classified as torture in the civilized world) can get us useful intelligence. The issue is whether it is legal. Hint: it's not! As long as we let the narrative continue to be driven towards subjects outside of torture's legality, we are allowing the issue to be clouded and laws to be broken. I say again: we are either a nation of laws or we aren't. We can't apply them sometimes and not others. It's hypocritical (surprise surprise, that happens to be something we're becoming known for around the world).

Over the past few months I've seen what I consider to be normal, decent people defend the use of torture against people we've captured. It boggles my mind. Are we really that frail of a people that we would so easily lose our moral compass as a nation as soon as we are confronted with some danger in our lives? It goes to show you how good we have it in America, because many people around the world are confronted with much greater danger day in and day out and they refuse to lose their bearings as much as we have in the past 8 years.

I say it's time for Americans to stand up and choose the right path. If we truly want to be the nation that people admire and look up to as we so often have been in the past, let's give people a reason to believe in us again. Stop the hypocrisy. Stop the double standards. Show that we won't be swayed by an enemy who is willing to use violence as a means of getting their point across.

I once again point to the definition of "terrorism":
Terrorism is a policy or ideology of violence intended to intimidate or cause terror for the purpose of "exerting pressure on decision making by state bodies."

The question is... by throwing out our moral compass and changing the way we operate (i.e. authorizing torture and then defending it, guantanamo, warrantless wiretapping), are we not doing EXACTLY what the terrorists want? They want us to live in fear and adopt reprehensible policies such as those put in place to authorize torture and facilities such as Guantanamo. It gives them a recruiting tool because it shows we're hypocrites and that our resolve to stand and face a threat without panicing is non-existent. Instead of taking the moral high ground and sticking to the beliefs and ideals that make this nation great, we chose to allow their actions to shake our inner core as a nation.