The Bush administration’s loss of the moral high ground.

Above photo taken at Abu Ghraib.

There was a time when a person like me would listen and contemplate over weather or not the latest controversy surrounding the New York Times printing their story about the US spying on terror funding was actually a danger to American lives.

Putting aside the fact that Bush himself and the policies of his little organization are the greatest danger to innocent lives for a moment, I no longer give the White house any credibility on using national security and state secrecy responsibly. Just recently we learned that Libby’s lawyer is requesting a delay in trial, reminding us of another leak that didn’t seem to raise the ire of Commander Codpiece so much.

From fluctuating terror alert levels to questionably timed announcements and arrests, they’ve given up the benefit of the doubt for everything from national security to healthcare.

Which brings me to the last and most important area in which Bush and company have lost the moral authority on, torture and humane treatment of detainees. Back on the twentieth of this month, the two American soldiers that were kidnapped by terrorists three days earlier were found, dead, tortured and decapitated, laid out with booby traps all over them. A tragedy made all the more horrible when you realize that America has found itself guilty of similar offences recently. I realize that no one has been decapitated in American custody, but many have died, beaten, with broken bones, suffocated. Not to mention the nasty little numbers they approved because they don’t classify detainees as POW’s or even subject to the Geneva conventions.

I had a little talk with the nutcases over at LGF about all this a little while ago, near the very bottom of the thread, please head over there and check it out if you have a second, I was mad then, and I usually say things more effectively when I first type it out.

As a side note, the supreme court decided today that the government cannot use military tribunals to sentence all the alleged terrorists in custody. This is a big step for the rule of law but more importantly it implies that the US should consider the detainees as subject to common article 3 of the Geneva conventions, which stipulate that prisoners "shall in all circumstances be treated humanely," not tortured or mistreated and not subject to "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.". Huge news, hopefully the Bush administration will adhere to the letter of the law, but I’d say they gave up their credibility on that one too, quite awhile ago in fact.