Special Responsibilities

Obama has done a very evil thing and a very good thing.

As you knew he would he declares open season on innocent children. God willing, this is as far as he carried his pro-abort zeal and FOCA will languish. But we can just coast on hope. The Church calls us to act.

And, he simultaneously orders an end to torture and prisoner abuse as a policy of these United States.

Dear Friends:

We hope you’ve heard the good news that today President Obama signed the executive order we have been seeking — an executive order that ends the CIA abuse of detainees, closes U.S. secret prisons, and provides the International Committee of the Red Cross with access to U.S.-held detainees. We have stopped our “count-up” clock — the clock marking the hours that had passed until an executive order halting U.S.-sponsored torture was signed.

This is a moment for celebration and thanksgiving. We have all prayed and labored faithfully for this significant step toward ending U.S.-sponsored torture.

Thank you for all your efforts to help reach this goal.

Is there more to do? Yes!

Along with these sweeping changes in policy, the executive order created a Special Task Force charged with reviewing the Army Field Manual’s interrogation guidelines to determine whether “different or additional guidance” is necessary for the CIA. The Task Force has 180 days to report. We need to make sure that any new interrogation technique that the Special Task Force recommends abides by the “Golden Rule” (in other words, each new technique must be both legal and moral if used upon a captured American).

Please email the White House to thank President Obama for his action today and to urge him to ensure that any additional interrogation techniques recommended by the Special Task Force comply with the principle of the “Golden Rule” — that we will use only those interrogation techniques that would be considered moral and legal if used upon a captured American.

Click here [http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2162/t/3961/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26460] to email the White House.

In the coming months we will focus on a legislative agenda to make permanent the elements of this executive order by codifying them into law. We will also continue working to secure a nonpartisan investigation that will provide the critical information necessary to create effective safeguards against the future use of torture and allow the nation to decide whether to pursue criminal prosecutions of those involved in authorizing or implementing policies that led to the use of torture.

Together, we can build on today’s victory and ensure that our grandchildren will be able to say, “Our nation once engaged in torture, but we don’t do that anymore.” May it be so.

Sincerely,

Linda Gustitus, President
Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director

Over the years, I’ve gotten a lot of mail from people who say things like, “I like what you write about the faith, but I don’t understand why you have been banging away about torture and prisoner abuse so much.” Again and again, people tell me they perceive some mysterious disconnect between all the Catholic theology stuff I write and the stuff about torture.

For my part, the mystery is how anybody on earth could see a disconnect. Over on his blog, Zippy manages to summarize better than I could the peculiar sense of responsibility I’ve felt (and think every person who voted for Bush ought to feel):

Those who supported President Bush had a special obligation to publicly oppose his immoral policies: for example, Bush supporters had a special obligation to publicly oppose his policy of torturing prisoners for “actionable information”.

For the most part they didn’t, of course; indeed many did just the opposite, engaging in a lengthy propaganda campaign of excuse-making, misdirection, and general intransigence. Tom called the phenomenon “making the case for fog”; Mark adopted the term “Coalition for Fog” to describe the armies of folks who, while they often did not defend torture directly, did everything they could to, well, blanket the issue in a fog of misdirection. Mark’s colorful rhetoric earned him the subconscious admiration of his ideological enemies.

But now we have a new president, and, unlike his predecessor’s torture policies, his despicable policies on abortion are quite overt. Even if we completely failed to distinguish the gravity of the two issues, the fact that these policies are explicit and unapologetic takes things to a whole new level. So, naturally, it is out with the old Coalition for Fog, and in with the new. New, improved, and ten times more despicable than the competing brand! Plus ca change, and all that.

The first paragraph pretty much sums it up as far as how I viewed my responsibility as a Catholic in the public square: I voted for the guy so I was responsible to criticize him when he committed evil with the vote I gave him. I was also responsible to educate people who hadn’t given the matter much thought, especially when there were some in our culture laboring with might and main to excuse and justify evil and lead innocents astray with falsehood. Despite the multiple numbers of lies told to the effect that I “hate” Bush, the fact remains that I do not and a cursory comparison of what I’ve had to say with that of people who *really* hate Bush (cf. Dem Underground, Moveon, Air America, etc.) would make this clear. I basically confined my critique to the matter of war crimes (though I do think he made great strides in bollixing up the economy too and I think his interest in prolife matters was, like his father’s pretty tepid). I’ve always been willing to acknowledge that they guy did some things right. But the mischief done to supporters (including Catholic supporters) who embraced consequentialism in defense of grave evil was never something I could just sit back and ignore.

Now, of course, some critics are treating my opposition to all this as though it constituted support for Obama, which is nothing but another lie. I have never supported Obama, precisely because he has made it clear that he means to do all in his power to sacrifice the unborn to Moloch. I oppose this as strenuously as I oppose all other grave evil.

That said, I think Zippy is right. While all of us have an obligation to oppose grave evil, the Catholics of the Kmiec/Vox Nova stripe have a special and peculiar obligation to immediately and vociferously speak out against Obama’s pro-abortion actions and to be the very first ones out of the gate to do so. They should lead the way in speaking out, not be making mealy-mouthed excuses for what he is doing, practice minimizing its significance and generally take up the mantle of the Coalition for Fog for the left. I hope they will listen to Zippy’s rebuke. And I hope guys like Doug Kmiec will be as quick to come out with a rebuke for Obama as he was to produce a whining bit of self-defense for supporting the guy.