Are Terrorists Human?
Ali Soufan’s editorial in the NY Times today brings about another question in the whole “torture” debate for me. Soufan poses midway through that”…it is in our national security interest to regain our position as the world’s foremost defenders of human rights…”
First, we don’t need to REGAIN anything. Name another country that has done more for human rights than the U.S. There’s been no slippage in ranking, Mr. Soufan. No other country even comes close to matching the financial and human resources outlay of the United States when it comes to defending the rights of humanity as a whole.
Second, I would strongly suggest that “human rights” belong to the innocent, not to those who would perpetrate evil. In assigning such rights to the most heinous of our species, you deny the truth to those who deserve it. A man hell-bent on destroying thousands of lives, who dreams of increasing that number tenfold and thereby securing a place in history and heaven does not deserve to be afforded the same human rights as a child in Darfur.
As the human race, we MUST assign certain labels to the basest of our humanity. We must point to one end of the spectrum and say “good” while pointing simultaneously to the other end, saying “evil.” Assigning the same rights to both ends of the spectrum is morally unconscionable, Mr. Soufan.
