Odd logic

March 6, 2008 at 1:31 am · Filed under politics

Bush to veto bill banning waterboarding

WASHINGTON - The White House says President Bush will veto legislation on Saturday that would have barred the CIA from using waterboarding — a technique that simulates drowning — and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects.

Bush has said the bill would harm the government’s ability to prevent future attacks. Supporters of the legislation argue that it preserves the United States’ right to collect critical intelligence while boosting the country’s moral standing abroad.

“The bill would take away one of the most valuable tools on the war on terror, the CIA program to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives,” deputy White House press secretary Tony Fratto said Friday.

I have to admit, this reasoning — or at least the language the White House keeps using — has been hard for me to accept on a logical level since the first time I heard it… even after temporarily adopting a different political orientation. How is this a ban on the CIA program of detaining and questioning? It just seems to be a ban on certain methods, unless I’m missing something. Are we really such poor listeners that the White House we might accidentally accept this logic without any critique?

I’m riding down the middle of the interstate on a unicycle. A policeman pulls me over and tells me I can’t do that and, by the way, I’m getting a ticket. I complain that my right to travel freely throughout our great country is being trampled. That’s the kind of skewing I see going on here. It’s almost too disproportionate to follow.

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