Byron Dorgan: “We have 43 top retired military leaders of the U.S. Armed Forces who have written a letter. As one, they say: We believe…”

“We have 43 top retired military leaders of the U.S. Armed Forces who have written a letter. As one, they say: We believe it is vital to the safety of our men and women in the uniform of the United States not to sanction the use of interrogation methods it would find unacceptable if inflicted on our captured Americans. Today there are men and women fighting for this country. If captured, how would we react if the leader of a group that captured them says: We are torturing them because we feel we can get information, and we can only get it by torturing them, and we believe torture is legal. We are going to waterboard them, we believe it is legal. We have already done it, and we intend to do it again if we need to. How would we feel if that were somebody else talking about how they are going to treat American soldiers? That is unacceptable. We have a country with a higher moral purpose and standards that have served us for two centuries, and we should not obliterate that just because we have some people in this administration who believe it is appropriate. It is not. John McCain knows that. He led the fight to put a provision in law that prohibits torture. This President did a signing statement next to the legislation he signed, saying: I don't have to abide by it if I don't feel like it. That is a scary thought in a democracy.”