A Nation Led Astray....

Eugene Robinson names one of the twisted paths the Bush administration trod in his op-ed "A Torture Paper Trail." (WaPo)

Robinson decries The Decider's eight years of moral blindness, finding it hard to believe "that George W. Bush, to his eternal shame and our nation's great discredit, made torture a matter of hair-splitting, legalistic debate at the highest levels of the U.S. government. But that's precisely what he did.

"Waterboarding, a technique of simulated drowning, is considered torture virtually everywhere on Earth except in the Bush administration's archive of self-exculpatory memos, directives and opinions."

These directives are typical of this administration's smokescreen maneuvers to hide the awful truth of their monstrous policies and nation-rending failures. Like, a strangling national debt that doesn't even include the almost trillion dollar cost of the invasion of Iraq. Or, reported growth-crippling inflation that doesn't even include energy and food costs.

The Bush government needs money?.... print some.

After eight years of this fiscal recklessness, Bush's U.S. dollar is the Monopoly currency of world markets.

The Decider mouthed "family values" and rattled terrorism bones, hiding behind religious zealots as his bully boys picked our pockets, enriching themselves and their corporate buddies, leaving taxpayers to absorb their financial mess.

As we dig ourselves out of the morass of the Bush legacy, we need to also rescue our sewer-soaked standards of integrity. Justifying torture is just the tip of the Bush administration's moral-failings iceberg, but it's the one all the world can measure us by.

Robinson calls for accountability, asking the next president to expose the Bush administration's torture policy.... "Only when we learn the full story of what happened will we be able to confidently promise, to ourselves and to a world that looks to this country for moral leadership: Never again."

Ill Winds....

When a country "legalizes" and codifies the use of torture, the rule-of-law flies out the window along with a country's moral bearings.

We have Attorney General Gonzales to thank for this abomination, he wrote the torture guidelines memo for The Decider.

Because of these expanded-use of torture guidelines, confessions can reasonably be denied, as in the case of an al-Qaeda "Detainee Alleges Abuse in CIA Prison."

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was in CIA custody for more than four years, alleged before a military tribunal on March 14 that his American captors tortured him into making false confessions about terrorist attacks in the Middle East.

The torture of detainees, aside from being despicable morally, not only makes such confessions suspect, it opens the door for similar harsh treatment of our, and our allies, captured soldiers.

The "confessions" of the 15 British sailors currently being held by Iran is a sad case in point. The confessions are not believable, but the worry is, how were they obtained. And, will they be used against them in a show trial.

In the continuing standoff, Iran is turning up the heat after initially promising to release the lone female captive and then reneging on that promise.... "Iranian Official: Sailors May Be Tried."

It is the agenda of President Bush that has brought us to this tit-for-tat pass .... by using the law as a political tool. Attorney General Gonzales is the instrument this administration uses to pervert the law and moral conduct to fit their agenda..... and, it's more than just the torture memo.

Just ask the 8 U.S. Attorneys who were fired for political reasons, many during investigations of which the White House disapproved.

Just ask the two border patrol agents who are facing long prison terms for going after a drug smuggler while that drug smuggler not only received the protection of our law, but goes free.

Bush's Attorney General excuses lawbreaking, drug-pushing and violent Latino illegal immigrant gangs as "individuals who have run into a spell of tough luck." (CNN)

Actually, is our country's legal system and moral code that have run into a spell of tough luck.... a fetid gale of corruption that blew in with the Bush administration and lay waste to our moral authority. The world will reap the whirlwind.