I'll have more on this eventually--but torture--

This is from this blog-post from the NYT The Most Curious Thing. It resonated with me, the way this did--Charges Dropped Against 20th Hijacker.

What I'm concerned about is losing our moral ground as a country. I love America, but I despair that tactics can be used by our servicemembers, or by our intelligence agencies, that weaken our overall cause, and actually make it harder to prosecute a War on Terror. I think the Bush Administration may have meant well, but they blew it royally by not recognizing standards of due process. We have laws for a reason, and processes for a reason. There are people who have languished at Guantanamo for many a long day who will not see the light of justice, because this Administration blew it.

Some are not able to confront their accusers, some are minors--this makes things very complicated in bringing a case to trial. Where is our justification? If we torture in some cases, and make the matter secretive, do we not open it up for any detainee to claim torture? Mistreatment? Denial of due process? And how shall any court, predicated upon our--*our* Constitutional justice system, be expected to behave with respects to that?

In trying to be hard, this Administration softened the system up. Are those we release possibly more full of resolve?

The more I try to understand this issue, the more convinced I am that the US needs to reform this situation. It is inadequate, harsh, stupid, and worst of all-ineffective. We should not torture, we should be able to appropriately charge and prosecute, and we should not be in any way obliged to detain indefinitely people who are not charged. This seems to me inhumane, and not the American way. It's just my impression, but I'm sticking to it.