I see the Republicans of the United States Senate (and a few Democratic senators) weren't moved by the photos below to reconsider voting for legislation that would permit the United States to use evidence obtained by waterboarding in military tribunals for suspected terrorists. The bill they passed last night also grants the president tremendous authority in defining a suspect as an unlawful enemy combatant and then allows him to detain that person for, well, forever. Even if that person is an American citizen. The Washington Post summed up this historic turn for the worse with an accurate but ho-hum headline on the front-page aout the approved legislation: "Many Traditional U.S. RIghts Absent." So much for tradition.
I'm in Princeton today for a small gabfest of foreign policy thinkers to discuss whether liberals and progresives can join together beneath the banner of "progressive realism"--a foreign policy notion that falls between harsh realism (think Kissinger) and messianic neoconservatism (think Iraq). It's practical internationalism--without unnecessary invasions.As Robert Wright, an organizer of this get-together, wrote in The New York Times in July,
Is progressive realism salable? The administration's post-9/11 message may be more viscerally appealing: Rid the world of evil, and do so with bravado and intimidating strength. But his approach has gotten some negative feedback from the real world, and there is a growing desire for America to regain the respect President Bush has squandered. Maybe Americans are ready to meet reality on its own terms.
I don't know about that. But certainly congressional Republicans are still not feeling the desire to regain respect. That's one reality to contend with.
Posted by David Corn at September 29, 2006 11:38 AM
