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All is Fair in Love and War? The Senate Pushes Anti-Torture Legislation

Do you agree with the proverb that all is fair in love in war, or should there be some rules of engagement? What would those rules be?

Most Senators believe that torture is not fair in war and passed legislation to prevent it on October 5, 2005.

But the House and the White House don’t support the anti-torture bill. President Bush does not want to limit his ability to carry out the war on terror, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, and many House members agree.

McCain amendment

Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), himself a victim of torture for five years in Vietnam, has been fighting for a new law that would prohibit inhumane treatment of enemy combatants.

Specifically, the provision would require military interrogators to abide by an Army field manual that is already in compliance with a series of international laws on warfare or, the Geneva Convention.

Although the Geneva Convention and the Army manual already prohibit torture, the cruel acts performed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq demonstrate a need for further action. Senator McCain said that there is a lot of confusion in the field about what is permitted and believes that his amendment to the Defense spending bill would help to clarify the rules.

But the White House believes that adding another law to the books is unnecessary and redundant since Congress passed a similar provision in 2004. That law, buried deep in the 2005 defense authorization bill, requires that the Defense secretary ensure humane treatment of detainees and that the Defense Department regularly report to Congress on any criminal investigations arising from detentions. This language, which is more vague and less effective than the McCain amendment, has been the only legislation to come out of the Abu Ghraib scandal so far.

White House opposed

The Bush administration feels that the amendment would impede the president’s powers as commander in chief, but fellow Republican Lamar Alexander of Tennessee contends that the Constitution provides Congress with the authority to regulate the treatment of prisoners of war. Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution says that Congress may "declare war, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water."

Nevertheless, the White House is concerned with making a distinction between the treatment of uniformed military personnel and that of unlawful enemy combatants; the administrations says that these combatants/terrorists are not protected by the Geneva Convention.

McCain says that he has no problem with differentiating types of detainees, but that Congress needs to pass a law that details the rules regarding all prisoners of war.

McCain has been trying to pass this legislation all session, with his last attempt in July foiled by those opposed. In the Senate, only nine legislators out of 100 are against it: Republicans Wayne Allard of Colorado, Christopher S. Bond of Missouri, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Tom Coburn and James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, John Cornyn of Texas, Ted Stevens of Alaska, and Pat Roberts of Kansas. But in the House of Representatives, there is substantial opposition.

Conference battle

The House already passed its Defense spending bill without any language on the treatment of detainees. Therefore, House and Senate conferees will have to battle over keeping the McCain amendment.

It’s possible that the rider will be cut since President Bush has threatened to veto the bill if the amendment’s attached. Bush has never yet used his power of veto, but because of the strong bipartisan sentiment in the Senate, he may have to use it to block McCain. The conference will meet on October 17, 2005.

McCain’s amendment represents the second time that the Senate has locked horns with the Bush administration over Iraq issues. The first was in June 2004, when Senators voted 94-3 to enlarge the Army and Marine Corps even though Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it was unnecessary.

The issue

At issue are the ethics of war. The United States harshly criticized Sadaam Hussein for using torture as a tool to secure his power. The pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib are shocking, not only because of their obscene and violent nature, but due to their similarity to images of Saddam’s torture rooms.

Is torture ever justified? What rules and regulations should soldiers and commanders follow when dealing with detainees? How can the government enforce such a standard of ethics?

What do you think?

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Update Posted on: 10/15/2005