Thursday, December 15, 2005

Civilization triumphs

Thank god. Or whomever. McCain. Thank McCain.

From today's WaPo:
"The House gave strong support yesterday to a measure that would ban torture and limit interrogation tactics in U.S. detention facilities, agreeing with senators that Congress needs to set uniform guidelines for the treatment of prisoners in the war on terrorism.

On a 308 to 122 vote, members of the House supported specific language proposed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would prohibit "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" of anyone in the custody of the U.S. government. Though lopsided, the vote was largely symbolic and does not put the language into law.

The vote specifically instructed House negotiators to include McCain's language, word for word, in the fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill, a decision that is not binding but carries significant political weight."


Ok, so it's symbolic. We'll have to watch carefully to see how the final legislation shakes out. But 308-122! 107 Republicans! This is good news, folks.

The upshot (I think, I hope): we don't suck. As much.

And you know, kudos to McCain. He's spent the past month standing up to Cheney, Bush, Hadley and various other minions. The man has balls. And unlike every member of the administration including the Secretary of Defense, McCain knows what it means to be in war, to be a POW, to be tortured.
Thanks, Senator. We can now begin the long process of restoring our credibility in the world.



UPDATE: From the NYTimes: "After months of resistance, the White House has agreed to accept Sen. John McCain's call for a law specifically banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror, several congressional officials said Thursday."

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home