Torture by the US government

The White House is threatening to veto a bill that, among other things, forbids the use of "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment" of detainees held by the United States Government. For full details, see this article. The White House claims that this amendment to the bill should not apply to CIA actions oveseas because, "the president needed maximum flexibility in dealing with the global war on terrorism".

It is very appalling to me that this administration thinks that torture is an acceptable means of questioning prisoners. Not only is it inhumane and uncivil, our government has a policy of "innocent until proven guilty." If a prisoner is tortured enough, he or she will admit to just about anything, so torture is in fact a very ineffective method of capturing and identifying true terrorists. Torture is also bad from a selfish perspective because it increases anti-American sentiment and makes foreign governments more likely to torture American prisoners of war. It is very hypocritcal of our government to think that they have the right to torture foreign prisoners yet expect our P.O.W.s to be treated better. One might argue our administration's policy of torturing prisoners actually makes us more vulnerable to terrorists attacks. Our administration needs to unequivocally codemn all torture practices, thereby setting a standard for human rights. This is another example of the administration using "terrorism" as an excuse to do just about anything they please.