From the Editor

A state senator from New York, Greg Ball, once again cast doubt upon the amount of grey matter lodged in elected heads when he suggested in a tweet that authorities should torture Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the accused Boston Marathon bomber.

His timing was impeccable.

Almost lost amid the turmoil of a tragic week, the Constitution Project released a damning report. In 560 pages, the Task Force on Detainee Treatment determined it is “indisputable that the U.S. engaged in the practice of torture.”

Yeah, I know—we all assumed as much. Then vice president Dick Cheney suggested mistreatment of prisoners in the war on terror was a “no brainer.” And retribution in the wake of horrific acts is a natural human impulse.

Besides, some consider torture justified if information extracted as a result saves lives. Indeed, Ball’s controversial tweet included language to that effect.

Unfortunately—despite the best efforts of recent filmmakers and former VPs to hint otherwise—the task force concluded that such acts revealed no critical intelligence in aid of our forces in the war on terror. When tormented by pain, humiliation or Justin Bieber songs, it seems, people will say just about anything to make it stop.

The last would work on me, at least.

Certainly a few of the men detained in Guantanamo or at locations overseas deserve the worst. And I’ll admit the “eye for an eye” passage from the Bible popped into my mind when thinking about the proper outcome for Tsarnaev. Yet there’s a reason the report drove me toward anger at those responsible, all the way up to the White House.

This country has long stood against violations of human rights and dignity. We treated prisoners of war according to international conventions. As a nation we decried the squalid conditions at Japanese POW camps in World War II—my uncle Harold spent the entire war in such camps and weight 112 pounds when rescued—and protested sharply when we learned of North Vietnam’s treatment of captives. We were an example to the rest of the world.

Now we have joined that lot.

Yes, our front line troops in various wars have killed enemy attempting to surrender. For example, one squad in the early stages of 1944’s Battle of the Bulge and desperate for information shot one of eight Germans they just captured, hoping the others would talk. But that is different than systematic torture.

Many centuries ago, Julius Caesar rose to speak as the Roman senate debated the fate of those involved in the Catiline conspiracy, an effort to overthrow the city. While most called for the unprecedented execution of the men involved, Caesar warned against the precedent.

“Take care,” he said, “how your decision will affect posterity.”

His point was simple: Anytime a nation breaks from its law and tradition to deal with unusual circumstances, an erosion of that nation’s core values will follow.

The United States tortured men detained by military and intelligence forces. Now and in the future, when forces of another nation mistreat American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in their custody, we can do nothing.

We have lost the right to protest, without the taint of hypocrisy. In fact, the task force indicated that methods our own State Department lists as torture were used on those held in Guantanamo and other locations.

Now, I’m sure some will assume an amount of political bias in this report. The bipartisan group was chaired, however, by Asa Hutchinson, a Republican and former congressman who also served as an undersecretary in George W. Bush’s Homeland Security Department. And Barack Obama’s refusal to confront the issue in 2009 spurred the project.

The Puritan strain in our founders hoped this nation would be a city on a hill, a beacon to the world. As the reaction of first responders at the Boston Marathon proved, that impulse still exists in us. But the exceptional few, with their tweets, “no brainer” comments and acts cloaked behind prison cells are content to stamp out that light.