Bush Vetoes Waterboarding Bill

President Bush, once again, ignored the fact that the United States has always opposed torture and has spoken out when our soldiers were mistreated by other countries. We can no longer claim that torture is not a part of our culture. Other countries can simply do what they want with our people and we can not object on the basis of a civilized nation. We are now "kissing cousins" with the likes of the N. Vietnamese, Communist Russia, and Sadaam Hussien. Granted, we, hopefully, are not nearly as cruel as they, but we have admitted to using torture and the leader of the free world has condoned it. What a sorry state of affairs!

Bush has succeeded in placing our military personnel in even greater danger if they are captured. Enemies can easily use the excuse that we do it also, so what is the problem? Our standing in the world, which was once that of integrity and standing up for the Geneva Conventions has been lowered even farther.

Once we were able to admonish other nations for aggression against sovereign nations. We can no longer do that because we invaded Iraq without provocation. We have an aggressive, uncompromising leader who will not negotiate or even talk to those who oppose us. Our biggest enemy during the 30 years following the cold war was Russia. We kept open communications with them. I shudder to think what might have happened if Bush had been President during the Cuban Missile Crisis. My guess is that I would not be here writing this today. It is simply amazing that he was re-elected for a second term.

At least we have less than a year of such poor leadership. No matter who is elected in November, it will certainly be better than today. Neither Democratic candidate will condone torture. One thing we certainly can count on. John McCain, a military man and a victim of torture, will bring an end to any torture that our people are carrying out.