The world is mighty twisty these days

The headlines, as usual, are a diverse map of the state of the world and the United States' place in it.

In mid July the Senate will vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment, which will make gay marriage unconstitutional if passed. It astounds me that our legislators will spend time and resources seriously debating this issue. Please write your senators and representatives and tell them that if they scribble on the constitution they will be spitting on the ideas our troops are dying to defend. Tell them if they scribble on the constitution, they will be out of a job. Ask them why they hate America.

On the other hand, considering the pros and cons of gay marriage might be easier on our poor elected officials than reflecting on US complicity in creating a culture of torture. Human Rights Watch has issued a searing indictment of the Bush administration. It comes in two parts, "The Road to Abu Ghraib" and "Enduring Freedom, Abuses by U. S. Forces in Afghanistan." The two reports are pretty heavy reading. They get right to the heart of the question: When and if is it ok to use studied brutality to gain information to save lives? The Bush administration is asking us to consider the abstract case in which you or I might torture someone to save a friend, a child, a family member. We are asked, through a series of memos and legal opinions to apply that thinking to institutions. President Bush maintains that, while he has the right to use torture in the war on terror, he would never use it. In electing to withdraw from the Geneva Conventions, Bush is asking us to trust him as he wields this power. Experiments have shown that human beings in positions of power are susceptible to abusing that power. In this case, where human lives are like grains of corn on the gigantic mill wheel of government, we should not trust or allow any one man - let alone George Bush - to determine what is right and wrong, humane or inhumane, just or unjust. Every two-bit dictator in the world uses that logic to extend power.

Of course for an administration in which the pursuit of power is everything, ordering up a legal justification for torture might be just like ordering up a grilled cheese. Such is the aplomb with which the State Department revised its annual report on terrorist activity. Ho-hum. For a snapshot of just how badly Colin Powell, Patron Saint of the Spineless, is twisting in the wind you only have to read the following words:

Powell defended his longtime friend Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage for telling reporters in April, when Armitage issued the original report, that "you will find in these pages clear evidence that we are prevailing in the fight" against global terrorism.

Did we say 307 people were killed last year? We meant to say 625. Oh and did we say the number of injured was 1,593? You should have heard 3,646. Yeah. That's it, 3,646.

Now, one would think that getting caught red handed fabricating supporting evidence that the US is winning the war on terror would give the administration a long pause to at least consider telling, for example, the truth. But Cheney Plunges bravely onward. In this fascinating exchange from the 9.11 Commission, Leaders of 9/11 Panel Ask Cheney for Reports the leaders of the panel tell Cheney to put up or shut up. Either produce the evidence of a clear Saddam Al Qaeda link or please stop talking about it.

Why would Cheney keep insisting on the veracity of the debunked intelligence in the face of so much counter opinion? One anonymous White House advisor states it this way:

"They feel it's important to their long-term credibility on the issue of the decision to go to war," the adviser said. "It's important because it's part of the overall view that Iraq is part of the war on terror. If you discount the relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda, then you discount the proposition that it's part of the war on terror. If it's not part of the war on terror, then what is it — some cockeyed adventure on the part of George W. Bush?"

On the other hand, the Republicans are consistent. We still can't see the coffins coming home. One of those coffins will be Pfc. Jason N. Lynch. Here is his story, a regular guy with hopes and dreams doing the bidding of his civilian leaders. Someday, some way, I really want to know why we are over there. I am not holding my breath for a straight answer.

A bright spot, however, continues to emerge. I think the public is catching on. Bush's approval ratings continue to sink.