Rationale isn’t rational

In response to Charles Krauthammer’s column in the Spokesman-Review on May 2, I wonder: Have our morals degenerated to the level of terrorists?

In the past when the Chinese (or the Iraqis or any other nation or terrorist organizations) used waterboarding on U.S. citizens, we all agreed it was torture. But when the U.S. employs waterboarding on enemies it is fully justified, right? Where is the logic in that?

Does anyone believe that anywhere outside of the U.S.? How many Americans believe that nonsense? Torture is torture, regardless of the party committing the vile act. For civilized people everywhere, there is no legitimate justification for torture. The people of our great country stood proudly for a couple of hundred years opposed to torture until a few of the neocons of the Bush administration dragged us into the filth of such actions in the recent past. The consequences of their actions will damage us as a nation (and unfortunately as individuals for a number of unlucky captured Americans) for perhaps years to come.

I believe those individuals who gave the order to employ torture, however high up the chain of command they wielded power, should be held criminally accountable.

Harvey Westford

Davis Lake, Wash.