Andrew Sullivan notes an important exchange from yesterday's Senate hearings:
Senator Lindsey Graham: You mean you're not equipped to give a legal opinion as to whether or not Iranian military waterboarding, secret security agents waterboarding downed airmen is a violation of the Geneva Convention?
Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser at Guantanamo Bay: I am not prepared to answer that question, Senator.
He then concludes:
I'm not sure the United States would be able to invoke the Geneva Conventions in defense of its own servicemembers any more without universal laughter
All very true, but I'm not sure how that's a sign of things getting "worse." This has always been the inevitable outcome of our new pro-torture stance. If the Geneva Conventions no longer apply because we are fighting a new kind of war, this logic must apply equally to combatants on both sides of the conflict. If we can torture them, they can torture us.
This highlights a simple fact that has always been true: our anti-torture policies have never simply been about morality. The safety and security of our own soldiers on the battlefield has always been a co-equal concern. If we don't treat enemy combatants with dignity, it is impossible for us to demand that others treat our soldiers with equal care. There is only one standard, and it applies equally to both sides.
What he have done to ourselves here is horrible. But it is not "worse." It is the inevitable outcome of the choices this administration has made.
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