Sigh. This is sad. The House passed HR 6616, the infamous “compromise” torture bill, and with that we get one step closer to the complete destruction of the United States’ positive image throughout the world. It’s a big document, but here’s the full resolution itself. I would like to point a few things out, though:There is a “lawful” and “unlawful” type of enemy combatant here. Under the “unlawful” we find this:

(i) a person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents who is not a lawful enemy combatant (including a person who is part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces); or

(ii) a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense.

Essentially, Bush has managed to remove any rights people picked up in the War on Terror(tm) might have had by blanketly defining people “associated” with these groups as unlawful. And that’s not all.

This gets especially tricky when we take a peek into who’s eligible for Bush’s shady little “commissions”. You see, unlawful enemy combatants are the ones subject to these things. And the important part to remember is that “lawful” combatants have to be state recognized. Well, how do we change that? In the case of Afghanistan, we tear down the government so they’re no longer “the state”, thus rendering them and their supporters “unlawful”.

Nice sleight of hand, that. Now let’s get into the torture, that’s the fun part. Hm…

Sec. 949t. Maximum limits

The punishment which a military commission under this chapter may direct for an offense may not exceed such limits as the President or Secretary of Defense may prescribe for that offense.

Sec. 949u. Execution of confinement

(a) In General- Under such regulations as the Secretary of Defense may prescribe, a sentence of confinement adjudged by a military commission under this chapter may be carried into execution by confinement–

(1) in any place of confinement under the control of any of the armed forces; or

(2) in any penal or correctional institution under the control of the United States or its allies, or which the United States may be allowed to use.

Here we find that any punishments are at the discretion of the President and Rumsfeld. As Rummy appears to be a less-than-compassionate kinda guy and Bush’s morals are more than a little questionable, this bothers me just a wee bit. Hopefully you can understand.

Now there are a lot of rules concerning the torture itself. Namely this:

Sec. 949s. Cruel or unusual punishments prohibited

Punishment by flogging, or by branding, marking, or tattooing on the body, or any other cruel or unusual punishment, may not be adjudged by a military commission under this chapter or inflicted under this chapter upon any person subject to this chapter. The use of irons, single or double, except for the purpose of safe custody, is prohibited under this chapter.

Waterboarding? Starvation? Sleep deprivation? Physical beatings? No? Fantastic. So wait a minute. Who’s subject to this chapter? That’s hidden, I’m unable to find out who exactly. The fact that the statement is in there at all means that there are people for whom this DOESN’T apply, which is scary enough.

Habeas Corpus?

(a) In General- Section 2241 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by striking both the subsection (e) added by section 1005(e)(1) of Public Law 109-148 (119 Stat. 2742) and the subsection (e) added by added by section 1405(e)(1) of Public Law 109-163 (119 Stat. 3477) and inserting the following new subsection (e):

(e)(1) No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.

Not “unlawful”, just any enemy combatant. So anyone picked up on the field, ANYONE, can be held without being charged, without being brought to court, and without legal counsel. Delicious.

All right, so what’s changed? Anything? Or doesn’t this look like the House just pushed through a law that gives Bush a free pass? To quote this great New York Times editorial:

We don’t blame the Democrats for being frightened. The Republicans have made it clear that they’ll use any opportunity to brand anyone who votes against this bill as a terrorist enabler. But Americans of the future won’t remember the pragmatic arguments for caving in to the administration.

They’ll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

To me it looks like the only “compromising” that happened was republicans compromising their principles.

[tags]terrorism, war, torture, bush[/tags]

Ain’t a whole lot to say on this one, just a good look at how much this war’s cost so far. Half a trillion dollars on a war that’s delivered zero of its promises.

According to the Globe, the report estimated that once Congress approved two pending bills on military spending, total war costs since the September 11 2001 attacks would have exceeded $500bn, of which $379bn had been spent on Iraq, $97bn in Afghanistan and $26bn on improving the security of US military bases elsewhere.

Now, thinking rationally, I can’t see why Afghanistan is 25% as important as Iraq. I needn’t go over the checklist again, we all know what’s on it. Just… damn. We would actually be better off if Bush had put all of that money in a pile and burned it.

Sometimes I imagine the legacy of George W Bush as a house of cards, or perhaps a game of Jenga. Up near the top, the really easy-to-pull-out pieces, you have environmental policies and gay marriage. Down at the bottom, anchoring the whole thing, is Iraq and the war on terror.

The NIE report was one of those pieces being pulled out, shaking his already shakey base. A second report, with an equally bleak message, may signal an inevitable crash of Bush’s presidency.

In a second blow to the president, a new U.N. report said the Iraq war was providing al Qaeda with a training center and fresh recruits, and was inspiring a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan hundreds of miles away.

“New explosive devices are now used in Afghanistan within a month of their first appearing in Iraq,” it said. “And while the Taliban have not been found fighting outside Afghanistan/Pakistan, there have been reports of them training in both Iraq and Somalia.”

Okay, did you catch that? While a PRE-war report is telling us that Iraq wasn’t a friendly training ground for al Qaeda, the new UN reports tells us that it is NOW. It wasn’t, and now it is. The Iraq War is working in direct opposition to the story we were told. None of our pre-war promises were true, and now the entire premise and hope is crumbling.

I really hope there’s a way to salvage the nation from this quagmire.