In previous President George W. Bush’s new personal story "Decision Points," he defends waterboarding. Controversial from the start, waterboarding had been used to notorious effect in Abu Ghraib prison against suspected terrorist prisoners. In an interview with Matt Lauer, George Bush said once again that he approved the use of waterboarding because his legal time assured him that it did not run legally afoul of the Anti-Torture Act.
Waterboarding is preventative also
The nation changed after 9-11. Waterboarding begun to be something talked about. United States intelligence was sure one more attack would happen. A terrorist attack had been being prepared for. President Bush received info from the intelligence. This showed that a future attack was likely. Permission to waterboard had been requested, the president consulted with his attorneys and got the green light.
'Why is waterboarding legal?’ is the big question
Lauer took the first step in asking the large waterboarding question when he asked Bush why he thought it had been legal. This is what the previous president said:
"Because the lawyer said it had been legal. He said it did not fall within the Anti-Torture Act. I’m not a lawyer, but you gotta trust the judgment of people around you. And I do."
But the natural extension of that line of inquiry, writes NPR – the climactic question that America nevertheless wants answered – went unasked by Lauer. While waterboarding might are legal, had been it a "moral" choice? Waterboarding is something that many nations say is torture. Many wonder if President Bush has an issue with it now thinking about his "born-again" Christian religion he says to have.
Hard ‘Decision points’
Dealing with terrorism and national security needs swift, decisive decisions. Most individuals might never fully understand what it is like to have to make such decisions, yet such is part of the burden of being a world leader. Many wonder if it’s moral to do waterboarding, even if it’s legal. Slavery had been legal in America at one point also although it wasn't moral. Many wonder if it’s moral to have abortion legal too.
Numerous wonder the exact same things about waterboarding. Unfortunately, the CIA's destruction of Abu Ghraib interrogation readings has met the statute of limitations. There will never be a court case. This is because a prosecution for obstruction of Justice can't ever happen. There might never be prosecutions about waterboarding. Of course, a president can no longer order it and it’s now illegal with Obama in charge.
Citations
NPR
npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2010/11/09/131184413/president-bush-would-jesus-ok-waterboarding
NPR
npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/11/09/131184522/no-one-charged-in-destruction-of-cia-interrogation-tapes?f=1001&ft=1&sc=tw
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