What Values?

Responding to the Supreme Court Decision on Guantanamo tribunals, President Bush stated that he will continue to do everything in his power to protect the American people.

But what ever happened to protecting American liberties and values?

For years, Radical Right Republicans have been screeching “Family Values” and pointing fingers at the immoral “Liberal Elite.” Bibles in hand, they assert that they alone possess the moral high-ground. But their actions demonstrate the opposite...

Bush urges others to follow the law, but scorns it to suit his purposes. Alberto Gonzales, in charge of enforcing the laws, has become the President’s Chief Enabler when it comes to deciding which laws to follow and which to reject. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld have orchestrated a top-down policy of prisoner treatment that goes against everything our nation says it stands for--dignity, human rights, justice. And leaking is a crime against our nation…unless it’s the President’s inner circle doing the leaking. Supporters of Bush, including smirking, arrogant Ralph Reed, are less pious Christians than greedy, money-grubbing con men.

The Executive Branch seems to know no bounds when it comes to hypocrisy.

They’ve lost sight of the principles that made our nation great, principles that we want to export to the rest of the world. Innocent until proven guilty. Facing your accuser. Due process. Transparency. Accountability. Open-mindedness.

Conservatives speak as if they have already determined the guilt of those we have detained in Guantanamo and elsewhere, yet in case after case we discover that we have rounded up scores of innocent people whose lives have been forever damaged by torture and lengthy detention.

I would rather be less safe and have our nation’s principles preserved than have the blood of torture on my hands or the injustice of indefinite detention without recourse on my conscience.

Lt. Commander Charles Swift, lawyer for Guantanamo detainee Salim Ahmed, spoke to Chris Matthews of Hardball yesterday. When asked about the crux of the Supreme Court’s decision, he put it perfectly:

It‘s how we conduct ourselves. It has to do where if we say that our opponent can cause us not to follow the rules anymore, then we‘ve lost who we are. We‘re the good guys. We‘re the guys who follow the rule and the people we fight are the bad guys and we show that every day when we follow the rules, regardless of what they do. It‘s what sets us apart. It‘s what makes us great and in my mind, it‘s what makes us undefeatable, ultimately.

These are the rules--the principles--that matter to me. The principles that seem to matter to conservatives--vengeance, injustice, retribution, secrecy, prejudgment, preemption, propaganda, torture--are what used to be called vices.