Financial Times Editorial - Declare war on torture

Financial Times Editorial - Declare war on torture
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: September 18 2006 03:00 | Last updated: September 18 2006 03:00


President George W. Bush says that what Congress does in the next two weeks could make or break the war on terrorism. He is right about that - but for all the wrong reasons.

The US president insists that unless Congress creates kangaroo courts for terrorism detainees, authorises him to spy on anyone he designates an enemy, and rewrites a key section of the Geneva conventions to legalise secret prisons and what he coyly calls "alternative" interrogation procedures, he will not have the tools he needs to win the war on terror. He hammered that message home again and again last week, on the stump, on the Hill and even in a nationally televised address to mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

He even appears to have twisted the arm of some top military prosecutors - some of his most vocal critics up until now - to get them to offer a lukewarm endorsement of some of his positions in a letter to Congress. The president wants his way, and he wants it now - before Congress goes into recess for the November 7 election.

Thankfully, there are at least some powerful senators, such as Lindsey Graham and John McCain, who are trying to stand in his way.

Their motives may have as muchto do with political positioning as with principle, but at least they have thrown up an obstacle - and defended the basic American values of justice and fairness that the war on terrorwas supposedly launched to protect.

Congress must not give in to all this politically-inspired haste. US legislators are faced with fundamental decisions about how terrorism suspects are monitored, interrogated and detained. But the new rules are fraught with unintended consequences: if Congress redefines the Geneva conventions, then foreign regimes that capture US soldiers in future may do the same - and use that as justification for torturing Americans. The new surveillance rules may catch many innocent Americans in their net - not just foreign plotters. And worst of all, as Colin Powell, former secretary of state, said last week, these measures would only further undermine the moral basis for America's war on terror, already in serious doubt around the world.

The president is right that America faces a moment of truth: at long last a national debate has begun on issues such as secret detention and illicit wiretapping that were previously governed by executive decree, not by democratic legislation.

But now that this crucial debate has begun, it should not be short-circuited to win a few more seats in an election year. Congress, the administration, and the American people cannot afford to get this legislation wrong. Haste may serve a short-term goal, but it will only further undermine America's moral authority in the longer term - and could help inspire a whole new generation of terrorists.