Dear Vice President Cheney:
As one of those Americans who voted for you in two elections, the excerpts from your new book and recent interviews you've given remind me of what has caused me the most regret. You sullied the good name of the United States of America around the globe when you authorized the use of torture.
During trips to North Africa and the Middle East, I've witnessed firsthand the loss of respect that Americans now confront. Ordinary citizens have asked me, "Do you know that your government, allegedly a 'Christian country,' is conducting torture? You should be ashamed."
Well, I am ashamed of my country and what it did.
Americans pride ourselves that, unlike many other nations, we operate by the rule of law. But you broke the law, sir. And we as a nation should hold you personally accountable for violations of U.S. law and our most fundamental moral standards.
Amazingly, you claim "no regrets" for authorizing waterboarding, and even write that you would do it again. You and your colleagues made this decision, as former President George W. Bush revealed in his memoir, openly and proudly. ("Damn right," is how he put it.) A similar tone
comes through in your own memoir.
In order to believe that you didn't break the law, you must also believe that waterboarding isn't torture. Psychologists report that we as human beings are excellent at lying to ourselves and we tend to believe what we want to believe. But the "right to believe anything" does not mean that "anything anyone believes is right."
In order to justify our actions, we deny the truth that we know is needed to cleanse our conscience. And without some cleansing of our national conscience, I fear that future leaders will attempt to subvert the laws of the land in a similar way.
Waterboarding is unquestionably torture. You cannot sugarcoat it or simplify it by calling it a mere dunk in the water. It was administered to produce severe mental and physical anguish, and it was done to scare the victim into a desperate condition where he would talk -- even though any "information" acquired through torture is known to be unreliable.
Waterboarding is torture under the U.N. Convention Against Torture; it was torture when we prosecuted our own soldiers in Vietnam and Japanese soldiers after World War II for using it; and it is torture under any application of common sense.
Moreover, torture is morally wrong. I join with the 300 organizations that belong to the National Religious Campaign Against Torture in affirming that torture is wrong -- unequivocally and always wrong. It is illegal, immoral and unjustified under any and all situations. It breaks us as human beings, it destroys our divine spark, and it corrupts the soul.
There is no wiggle room for torture here. There shouldn't be. And yet you and President Bush both acknowledge authorizing torture. And you show no shame in doing so. And you even say you would do it again "if circumstances arose where we had a high-value detainee and that was the only way we could get him to talk."
With all due respect, sir, this position is wholly inadequate and unjustifiable.
U.S.-sponsored torture has cost us dearly. Torture does not make us safer; it makes us more of a target by inspiring our enemies. More importantly, it undermines our moral standing as a nation.
If America is, as political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville put it, "a nation with the soul of a church," then some national responsibility and moral accounting needs to occur. Our nation's soul risks corruption when our highest elected leaders admit to violating U.S. law and international law by authorizing the use of torture.
Like many others, I have come to the conclusion that there is only one course for our country to take. We must establish a Commission of Inquiry to fully investigate all aspects of the use of torture by the United States, and to help ensure that U.S.-sponsored torture never happens again. We must face the gravity of the mistake of torture, we must cleanse our national conscience and we must have a Commission of Inquiry to redeem this dark period and prevent such a serious sin from ever happening again.
Mr. Cheney, you brought us to this place. Shame on you!
Sincerely,
Rev. Richard Cizik
A version of this post originally appeared via Religion News Service.
(The Rev. Richard Cizik, a former vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, is now president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, a member of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.)
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You voted for him - twice. You knew what he was both times; only now that he has put it down in print and signed off on it, you can no longer deflect and deny. You, Rev. Richard Cizik, are as guilty as he is; as bad as he is; and more hypocritical that he.
They define as torture a technique that is not torture. Hardly a reliable source of information, especially as they were acting to promote a different political party. The media, in simple fact, acted as the propaganda arm for the Democrat party.
Kumbaya!
Cheney dishonored the role of VP to its lowest low in American history and sacrificed the interest of every American in favor of his personal fortune
Additionally, he sabotaged the work of American intelligence to the point that he should be in the cell along with or instead of Bradley Manning
They used a tried and true formula. It is embarrassing and unpatriotic but here is where they got their idea of how to fool and control America.
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for a lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country." Herman Goering (at the Nuremberg trials after WW II)
We got NAZIED.
Remember this people. It will be the key to the GOP campaign for the next few months. They will try to scare you into thinking President Obama is the threat while it is they that are the only enemy America has.
They will say that regulations are costing us jobs then present a plan that costs more jobs that any regulation could ever do.
They will say that the deficit is a huge problem. But it was not even important while they were in power running it up like a flag on a flagpole.
They will say that tax cuts create jobs. But there is not an economist or businessman in the world that agrees. Jobs always have been and always will be nothing more than a by product of demand for goods and services. It cannot work any other way. When the demand for goods goes up so does hiring.
They will tell you that the money needs to go to the job creators. But they will pretend that businesses are the job creators which is not true. It is the demand for goods and services from the middle class that has and always will drive job creation. Nothing else can do it. We, the people are the job creators. How can it be any other way?
I find it amazing that you could not see the evil in these two men (Cheney/Bush) to the extent that "you voted for them TWICE"!?! How could you look/listen to them and not see/hear it?
Since you can be so easily fooled, may I suggest that you are in the perfect line of work.