Thank you, service men and women, for risking your lives to serve and defend our country.

Shame upon you, leaders of the military and White House administration, for allowing such interrogation practices to be used that will forever mar the noble efforts made by these men and women.

Shame upon us, Americans all, for cultivating a society that says the end justifies the means. The torture that has been performed by American soldiers upon detainees is upon all our shoulders. What would you have done? What would I have done?

Listen to the NPR Talk of the Nation report: What happened at Guantanamo?

Read ABC News report on CIA's Harsh Interrogation Techniques. (This is not a funny subject, but somehow this is: "The detainees were also forced to listen to rap artist Eminem's "Slim Shady" album.")

And why? These methods are pointless. "It is "bad interrogation. I mean you can get anyone to confess to anything if the torture's bad enough," said former CIA officer Bob Baer" (from the ABC report above).

Of course, not everyone agrees. Read this piece in support of waterboarding from Blackfive.

Here's a little background: I grew up in a conservative Christian family. We were those "radical evangelicals" that really scare the commentators on NPR. To a large degree, that's still what I am. And that's precisely why I find the interrogation techniques I've heard about so heinous and disturbing:
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," Luke 6:31. This verse is still in my Bible. I would not have open-handed slapping, forced standing, or waterboarding done unto me. The automatic response to an invocation of the Golden Rule is this: "Well they didn't treat us that way. What about 9-11? What about the bombing? That wasn't them using the Golden Rule."

Nope, it wasn't. Terrorism is wrong. Bombing civilians is abominable. That fact doesn't change the content of the verse to what we seem to think it is: "Do unto other as you would have them do unto you unless they've already done something unto you that you don't like, in which case you can just go ahead and do anything to them that you think suits."

Principles stand. Principles don't change with situation. Neither should we.