Republicans: Unfit to Govern. Again.

The Republicans would have you believe that Nancy Pelosi is as guilty than the people who actually did torture. After all, she is listed on a brief as being briefed about the torture way back in 2002.

So, by being supposedly briefed and not saying anything until later, she gives complicit assent and is therefore just as guilty as the Republicans who were in power and actively supporting Bush's doctrine. Of course, according to Cheney, Pelosi is more guilty than the people who actually tortured since they were helping America and she was just back in Washington passing laws and stuff.

Wait a minute. This isn't about politics, is it? Could it possibly be?

The executive branch under President Bush crafted and executed a doctrine of torture. They have primary responsibility for it. The rest is just smoke at this point. If people want to accuse Congress of failing in oversight, well, get in line. We can do that after that actual perpetrators have been dealt with.

But I think this is a larger issue. Who do we want America to be?

Americans like to think of ourselves as better than other countries. We're freer. More open. More tolerant. More moral.

We act like we like to think we are as long as we're not scared. But when security becomes an issue we get vicious. We throw mud. We howl for blood from the rooftops.

I remember when the Gulf War I started and two days later, walking in Central Square, I saw a poster for sale of a target with Saddam's face on it.

Cheney and the Republicans have said that if torture made us safer then it's okay. That's a deal with the devil if ever I heard one. Not that I'm surprised. I've been thinking of Cheney as Beelzebub since inauguration.

Liberty means risk. It means pleadging to each other "our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." It means that sometimes in maintaining a free society we're going to take it on the chin. It doesn't mean we don't come up swinging. It doesn't mean we don't have to protect ourselves intelligently. It does mean our freedoms are worth the cost. The problem as I see it is we have to decide if we want liberty or security. It's not at all clear we can have both-- Israel hasn't been able to manage it. Why should we think we can?

We can have security at the price of liberty. That's not a problem. Lots of dictatorships have made that choice. Americans seemed to make that choice under Bush while at the same time loudly proclaiming to themselves that they were still free, still in control of their government.

It wasn't true, of course. But that's what we told ourselves.
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