There are a class of people in this nation, like PublicIdiot and his fellow travelers, who believe that black sites, indefinite detention without charge, extra-legal judicial systems and torture are justified in order to keep the Republic safe. It they are right, then the laws need to be changed...treaties abandoned...the nation changed. That change would transform the nation beyond the recognition of its Founding Fathers and, in the process, render the sacrifices of every American who has fought and died to protect those founding principles pointless.
By authorizing the use of torture, the Bush administration embarked on a course never before taken by this country...A course whereby actions which have been prosecuted by this nation as crimes and war crimes are deemed legal. It is only those for whom the end justifies the means...for whom the rule of law is but a quaint, outdated ideal...that find the idea of torture palatable. What they fail or, more likely refuse, to understand is that America cannot be saved by destroying the very foundation upon which it stands...the rule of law. Destroy that foundation, and the Republic soon falls.