Ugly things happen in wartime. Torture is not the only one. Some torture to routinely intimidate and terrorize prisoners, as did the Japanese, Koreans and Vietnamese. Others justify it because it might save lives. In some cases it is just the pointless cruelties of brutes, barbarians and sadists, as at Abu Gharaib, where there wasn't even any intelligence to be gathered. In others, it is good men who feel that the circumstances justify the action, that they have no choice. Some of these are even understandable. Some may even be forgivable. I try not to judge good men who, rightly or wrongly, feel they have no choice but to do horrible things... I was not there, who am I to judge? I wouldn't dare.

Then there are those fat, sleek petty little men in expensive suits, perfectly clean and groomed, with manicured hands folded behind mahogany desks in air conditioned offices a thousand miles away; foul little toads who devise elaborate legal justifications to protect themselves and their greasy friends from the hideous crimes they order others to do. And even worse are those who make excuses for these cowards because it might embarrass their political party and draw attention to the moral corruption of the men they support and the lies they have chosen to believe. These are immune from the disgust of their countrymen as well as the prosecution of the law..

I don't know what I would do if I were a soldier, and if I sincerely believed if I forced a man to talk by torture I could save innocent lives. I have no way of predicting how I would react faced with such a horrible choice. Is it better to do such a thing if there is a chance of saving the innocent; isn't it also a cowardly evasion of moral duty to hide behind morality and not do what has to be done, no matter how distasteful, what has to be at least tried that others may live?

A man I loved deeply, and who loved me, may have been faced once with these choices. My stepfather was a soldier in a foreign war. He never spoke of what he did, but I heard rumors. I pray they were not true, but I suspect they were. I know it would not have been easy for him, he was a decent and compassionate man. He is long dead now, but just knowing what I might know will haunt me till I die.

I really don't know what I would do. I would like to think I would be man enough that if I really felt it was necessary, I would have the balls to do it myself, and not order someone else to bloody his soul and condemn himself to a lifetime of nightmares, while I hid behind writs and affidavits and cowardly constitutional evasions that would wash the blood from my hands. It is unforgivable. If it is necessary to do the unthinkable, at least be willing to live with the consequences of your crimes. Do not let your lawyers give you a paper absolution that will let you sleep at night with a clear conscience, that will allow you to publicly boast of your courage and patriotism for decades after while you hold the decent people shocked by your crimes in contempt as cowards and traitors and weaklings. It is unforgivable. It is unforgivable.

Cheney and his gang were loathesome and foul creatures.