I wasn’t quite sure how to respond when I heard Dick Cheney say he was comfortable with almost any form of torture.  (Fox News’s Chris Wallace asked, “So even in those cases where they [CIA interrogators] went beyond the specific legal authorization, you’re OK with it?” Cheney answered, “I am.”)  I didn’t even know where to start.  Did Cheney not understand that such acts beg reciprocity from our enemies,  generate new enemies, and  suggest a dangerous indifference towards the value of human life?

Although I’m a bit behind on this, two Marine generals gave Cheney the answer I wish I could have written.  Here’s the key excerpt:

What leaders say matters. So when it comes to light, as it did recently, that U.S. interrogators staged mock executions and held a whirling electric drill close to the body of a naked, hooded detainee, and the former vice president winks and nods, it matters.

The Bush administration had already degraded the rules of war by authorizing techniques that violated the Geneva Conventions and shocked the conscience of the world. Now Cheney has publicly condoned the abuse that went beyond even those weakened standards, leading us down a slippery slope of lawlessness.

-Michael