A letter to my Senator

Dear Senator,

I was very disappointed that your vote joined with the Republicans to defeat a defunding bill related to techniques used to interrogate prisoners.

Legally, any information obtained by coersion is no good in court.

Morally, use of violence to obtain information is wrong!

Americans are smart people. We do not need to resort to evil, violent, harmful techniques to get information.

Jack Bauer does not represent the American, or the civilized, way of operating.

Just because Israel uses M-12 techniques does not give us cover for treating Muslims (they are the primary ones we use torture on - sounds prejudiced to me!) that way. Since most of our prisoners were picked up in sweeps, all we are doing by use of torture is making them even more dangerous to us in the future.

Using any form of violence, no matter how subtle, as John McCain argues, does little to no good to get information that has any worth.

This administration has not only lied to us in nearly every way imaginable to the point where they no longer have any credibility, they have withheld information about their interrogation programs and the results they have gotten. Even if they have given out bits and pieces, I have to think they will only give out what they think justifies their use of force to get information.

We have to set an example for the world of something a whole lot better than what we are doing now.

Since you voted the way you did, you are in a position to request reconsideration. I urge you to do that as soon as possible. We have to stop this insane belief that violence gets us intelligence.

Violence at any point with "enemy combatants" is only a macho form of retribution. I don't remember even John Wayne ever resorting to violence to get someone to "talk!"

Respectfully,

Rev. Jerry Eckert