"We Do Not Torture"

Ethical Culture is committed to preserving the dignity of the person. Nothing can be more violative of dignity than torture, and any humanist axiomatically needs to oppose torture absolutely.

In the human rights culture the ban on torture is the only one which is absolute, and while most countries practice torture as a matter of policy, as does the United States, the matter of torture has never been elevated to a public or political debate, a debate which this human rights activist finds obscene.

Last week, the Senate passed legislation on torture to prevent the CIA from using "harsh interrogation techniques," bringing our premier spy agency is line with what is permissible by the armed forces. Some Democrats, not wanting to appear soft on national security (as if torturing our enemies will make us more secure), in their usual cowardly manner, caved, and supported this shameful and hideous legislation.

George Bush has declared that he will veto the legislation.

Bush has publicly declared that the United States does not use torture. Since 9/11, he has played a strange political game with Congress and the courts in a successful effort to preserve the dubious right of the United States, and the Commander in Chief, to employ torture if in his magisterial view it is required.

His motives seem elusive, leaving one to conclude that with the United States' use of torture he is sending a message to the rest of the world, that if you mess with us, we will do awful things to you.

Indeed, under Bush, torture has not become the unacceptable exception to American policy; we have created a culture of torture -- Baghram, Abu Graib, Guantanamo, secret prisons, extraordinary rendition. Even Canada has now officially named the United States as a country which employs tortures as a matter of routine.

This willingness to sink to barbarism presents itself to the world not as a sign of strength, but as the desperate cry of a wounded giant. As a matter of policy, it leaves the United States less secure, not more.

Let us hope that with a new administration, this blight on America's image and self-image will be erased, and that ethical values will be restored to American foreign policy.