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Economist On US’s Torture Policy

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, The War On Terrorism

In a great editorial entitled “How to lose friends and alienate people,” the magazine breaks down the reasons why current thought on torture are wrong, misguided and dangerous.

THERE are many difficult trade-offs for any president when it comes to diplomacy and the fight against terrorism. Should you, for instance, support an ugly foreign regime because it is the enemy of a still uglier one? Should a superpower submit to the United Nations when it is not in its interests to do so? Amid this fog, you would imagine that George Bush would welcome an issue where America’s position should be luminously clearÃ¢â‚¬â€?namely an amendment passed by Congress to ban American soldiers and spies from torturing prisoners. Indeed, after the disastrous stories of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib, GuantÃƒÂ¡namo Bay and Afghanistan, you might imagine that a shrewd president would have sponsored such a law himself to set the record straight.

But you would be wrong.

People, read the rest. Persuasive, affecting and right on the money.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 11th, 2005 and is filed under Foreign Policy, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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