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Academic

: Essentially Contested America

John McCain: Bush Lite and Kerry Redux

By Robert Justin Lipkin

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John McCain was repeatedly tortured during his imprisonment in North Vietnam. Understandably, he now says he opposes using torture as a method of interrogation in fighting the war on terror. Nevertheless, he has supported Mr. Bush's veto of a prohibition of torture, including such techniques as waterboarding which Senator McCain candidly acknowledges is torture. Consider the following article: "When President Bush vetoed legislation Saturday that would have prohibited the CIA from using physical force in interrogations, he had the support of Sen. John McCain - jm:

the most outspoken of any presidential candidate in his opposition to torture. The Arizona Republican has described his own torture by the North Vietnamese, who captured him in 1967 after his plane was shot down on a bombing run. He spoke out against the near-drowning technique called waterboarding when it was being defended by other Republican candidates and by Vice President Dick Cheney. . . . And McCain won the signature of a reluctant Bush on 2005 legislation that prohibited military interrogators from using waterboarding and other methods. . . . On Saturday, however, McCain backed Bush's veto of a bill that would have barred the CIA from employing those same techniques - or any others not authorized by the Army Field Manual - when questioning prisoners." For more click here.

The only plausible explanation is that McCain wants to be known for opposing torture, while at the same time being seen as tough on national security by supporting a President who clearly believes it is his prerogative to define torture including whether waterboarding is torture. Of course, anyone can define "torture" in such a manner as to render it benign. But that won't change the fact of its barbarism. McCain wants to eat his cake and have it too. The only thing left for McCain is to exclaim that he voted against torture before he voted for it.

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Full post as published by Essentially Contested America on April 09, 2008 (boomark / email).