This morning I downloaded the Select Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA torture. The entire document is 525 pages. However, the forward and executive summary are considerably smaller and a manageable read.
Reading what had been done in the name of the American people – in my name – brought me to the point of tears. The criminal attack on 9/11 shocked and angered me very deeply. Today I still have difficulty viewing the footage of the planes hitting the World Trade Center. But in our desperate attempts to get the criminals responsible we have become our own worst enemies.
I just saw what I wrote and realized that “becoming our own worst enemy” has new meaning to me now. For that’s how we’ve now defined ourselves with these acts by the CIA. Think of ISIS or the Taliban. How much different is what they are doing to their captured prisoners is what we’ve done to some of our “detainees?” I am ashamed of our behavior.
Where do we go from here? Clearly, with this report now public, the race to the bottom is now over. But our moral authority in world affairs – earned during World War II – has now been entirely spent. We’re really not much better than the Russians now. And that ain’t saying much…