Posted on 09/15/2006 5:03:46 AM PDT by demkicker
WASHINGTON - On a frantic day of Republican infighting, the Senate Armed Services Committee defied President Bush on Thursday as four Republicans joined Democrats in approving a plan for the trial and interrogation of terror suspects that the White House has rejected.
The Republican rebellion was led by Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the committee chairman, with backing from Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine. The White House had warned that their legislation would leave the United States no option but to shut down a CIA program to interrogate high-level terror suspects.
The vote came despite an all-out effort by the White House to win support for its own approach, which provides far fewer protections for detainees. Bush himself traveled to Capitol Hill with Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday morning, and the administration released a brief letter in which the top lawyers for the military branches said they did not object to the White House proposal to redefine a key provision of the Geneva Conventions.
But former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell sided with the senators, saying in a letter that Bush's plan to redefine the Geneva Conventions would encourage the world to "doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism" and "put our own troops at risk."
Powell's statement amounted to a rare public breach with the White House he served, but reflected his opposition while in office to the administration's assertions that the war against al-Qaida should not be bound by the Geneva Conventions.... (continued at link)
(Excerpt) Read more at houstonchronicle.com ...
That makes me so happy that they care so much about people who are out to kill me. If they care so much about terrorists and being liked so much let them move to Iran or the Sudan then they can all be cat pals. These people should not be in office, at least not making my laws and rules.
Supposedly, McCain has said that if this hurts his presidential chances in '08, that's fine. He'll still run, but I'm not so sure he'll run as a Republican since he's hurt the GOP and is so disliked.
My guess is that he'll run as a "maverick independent" and get the media salivating over his candidacy. He'll be the Ross Perot of '08 and time will tell if he peels off enough votes to put Hillary in the White House, or if it backfires and helps the GOP candidate.
Many here know me as a McCain loyalist but I be damned if I can understand this, especially in light of what terrorists do to our people when captured. I intend to write a letter to my senator (Warner) and find out exactly what is driving the philosophy...I understand "high moral ground" but I don't understand it in the case of stateless persons engaged in armed conflict against the United States. I can only suppose that Graham, McCain, Warner, Collins and Powell believe this is the only way they can get the Supreme Court to agree on legislation dealing with interrogation tactics?
OMG, thanks for reminding us what an absolute traitor Graham is! And I love your idea:
Patriotic Americans should introduce legislation to the House of Reps to have a vote of no confidence of our entire Senate!
Oh how interesting. I hadn't heard that he's commented on his presidential chances with regard to this subject. I think your analysis of how he'll run is spot on.
The House is doing their job.....the Senate is not. We may as well offically lose the senate to the Dims...it's almost as if we have anyway with these idiots acting like wanna-be libnuts. McCain thinks this type of thing is gonna get him the Republican Nomination? Not a chance in hell.
Name the other countries that are at war with us and abide by the Geneva convention.
Bad supposition. These five have clearly embarked on an attempt to weaken our President, country and war on terror. The President put forth a request that has already been legally scrutinized for a Supreme Court test so there is no excuse for their revolt.
Point for you and Zell.
Probably because real coups involve guns and stuff. This is just normal democracy in action. (Inaction?)
And your quote is irrelevant since our President isn't resorting to terrorist tactics to win!
The arguement is the core of the issue we're dealing with. Handing people over to a third party so they can "interrogate" them for us ain't beanbag. How rough are we willing to play? We generally treat prisoners very well; they used to ask us to send them to Abu G, and not to the Iraqis. Or worse, the Kurds. What good is the great effort we normally make, if our reputation is sullied by other instances?
I agree that the idea of "torture" is abused and stretched, but KSM and Abu Zubaydah got more than a wedgie before they started giving up the goods. If we're going to go down that road, then fine, but let's at least be cognizant of the unintended consequences.
Tell our military men and women that we are in an ideological war with al-Qa'ida while they try to hang onto their heads.
I don't need to. They know. In the end, the military realizes that the GWOT is a global counterinsurgency effort that isn't going to be won with firepower.
"Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the committee chairman, with backing from Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine."
Terrorist appeasers enabling OBL.
"The war we fight today is more than a military conflict," Bush told thousands of veterans at the American Legion convention. "It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century."
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:83r13H3HEPUJ:www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14599961/+bush+ideological&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=8
Did you even read my post?
(A) I was talking about future conflicts with actual nations.
(B) I pointed out that our troops have always been abused when captured.
(C) The point of my post was that future opponents could openly torture our guys and shrug it off as necessary, and leave us no room to protest. It turns a potential war crime into an administrative shuffle.
Why not? It works every time it is tried. I believe it is called peace through victory.
They generalize that the treatment of legal soldiers will be affected by out treatment of these terrorists. This error equates unlawful combatants with true soldiers and attempts to put them on the same level. This actually weakens the whole Geneva framework rather than strengthening it. Because it encourages governments and groups to cease clothing and identifying their soldiers for the protections of the Geneva Conventions. If spies and terrorist are given the same protections, why put a soldier in a uniform and make them an easy target??? This is the gigantic foolishness of this whole approach. Instead, the Senate should very carefully define what is and what is not a soldier and how these terrorists miss this test and therefore waive the rights accorded to lawful combatants.
As for Republicans, we need to look at our whole system of nominating and think hard. Term limits didn't work because it had the perverse element of removing the most qualified and worthy with the idiots who need changing. I was a big advocate of using the primary process to remove the RINOs worst at the margin but the National Party in clear calculation of not being able to let go of a single seat risks all seats to hold on to the very individuals that make the base insane. Losing more seats just makes these idiots more powerful, not less. We need a process that establishes party discipline. The removal of Chaffee would have done that but this is not possible and this pattern kept Spectre in the previous cycle despite the availability of a far superior candidate for the post.
I have been thinking about perhaps reducing the number of delegates for the convention that are awarded in the General primaries, and introducing State nominating conventions for Statewide and National Seats. This is a call back to smoke filled rooms, so these rooms need to have blowers called bloggers and public disclosure of the debates. The run up to the convention could be preceded by discussion forums and access via internet by statewide party members something that wasn't possible before the internet.
The emphasis of the activity prior to State conventions and the National convention would be on selecting delegates. Something that has completely slipped to the wayside. The effect of this would be to call into question until very late in the nominating season who the final candidate would be. This gives all of the states input on the nominating process rather than the current two or three states. It also builds a party apparatus that can act to keep by acclamation certain candidates and dump others early in the process. Right now a Senator has to decide to step down once elected. No other alternative apparently works. Something has to be done.
McCain stands his ground on CIA jails ("willing to risk the presidency")
Terrorists should be considered international outlaws.
These three want to give the them more legal rights than the Soldiers who fight them.
Next they will advocate the death penalty for any Soldier that kills one of them.
That the Democrats want to give the terrorists more legal protections than our Soldiers and wish to prosecute our soldiers for killing terrorists does not sutprise me. The Democrats and terrorists have the same goals and are on the same side.
It is the Republicans doing this that sickens me.
There are more than a few on this forum who would like to see John Mc Cain elected President of the United States because in their words, He is tough on terrorism."
If what he did and wants to do is tough on terrorism, I hope I never see him being tender on terrorism.
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