Ethics

Romney Advisers Want to Bring Back Torture

If you consider yourself to be a single-issue voter who will not vote for President Obama because of drones or "liberty," you should read this first.

According to an internal campaign memo obtained by the New York Times, Romney's national security advisers are advising him that we should bring back torture.

Mr. Romney’s advisers have privately urged him to “rescind and replace President Obama’s executive order” and permit secret “enhanced interrogation techniques against high-value detainees that are safe, legal and effective in generating intelligence to save American lives,” according to an internal Romney campaign memorandum. [...]

The Romney campaign document, obtained by The New York Times, is a five-page policy paper titled “Interrogation Techniques.” It was a near-final draft circulated in September 2011 among the Romney campaign’s “National Security Law Subcommittee” for any further comments before it was to be submitted to Mr. Romney. The panel consists of a brain trust of conservative lawyers, most of whom are veterans of the George W. Bush administration.

If you're going to accuse someone of being "just like Bush," you may want to start with the man whose team of advisers is an exact replica of the Bush administration.

President Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo Bay immediately after taking office and, shortly thereafter, he signed an order effectively banning torture.

In contrast, Mitt Romney would at the very least ease what we define as torture, and his team of neo-con advisers want to bomb Iran so bad they can taste it. A protest vote is a vote for Bush foreign policy. It's a vote for cowboy saber-rattling, "enhanced interrogation," and preemptive wars.

Contrary to popular opinion, I do believe George W. Bush had some semblance of empathy, but I also believe Mitt Romney has none. And a Romney presidency could very well be an even bigger disaster than the Bush administration was for that reason.

By his own admission, Romney doesn't even care about half of America. That should frighten the rest of the world and give pause to anyone who considers themselves to be anti-war.