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The McCain amendment

President Bush has threatened to veto the measure, which would ban cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.

The U.S. Senate recently took a step to help restore America's reputation as a country that stands by the rule of law. Despite the threat of a presidential veto, 90 senators voted to ban abusive treatment of prisoners in American custody. Now lawmakers need to hold firm.

Thanks to the efforts of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former Vietnam prisoner of war, the Senate added a measure to the massive $440-billion defense appropriations bill that would send an important message to the world. First, it would limit the military to only those interrogation methods approved by the Army Field Manual. Second, it would prohibit cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. government custody.

The move was an attempt to insist that the executive branch live up to the international treaties and domestic laws prohibiting the torture and abuse of detainees, a policy that America has championed for the last 50 years.

President Bush is fiercely opposed to the amendment and has threatened to veto the bill if it reaches his desk. Imagine that. Bush has not vetoed a single bill since becoming president, yet he is ready to use his veto to defend torture.

Veto threat or not, the bill should arrive on the president's desk with the McCain amendment intact. The House version doesn't include the amendment, so holding the line will be left to the conferees.

As chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, will be one of those conferees. While he claims he has an "open mind" on the matter, Young already has a litany of arguments against the amendment. "I have little sympathy for those who represent this (terrorist) movement," Young said, positing that even those detainees who might be innocent of any terrorist acts don't deserve protection from abuse at American hands. "(T)hey are still part of the terrorist movement."

McCain has a ready answer for this kind of crimped thinking. On the Senate floor, he reminded his colleagues that as Americans "we hold ourselves to humane standards of treatment of people no matter how terrible they may be. To do otherwise undermines our security, but it also undermines our greatness as a nation."

Young and his fellow conferees have an obligation to rise above partisanship and uphold principles that should be beyond debate in a civilized society.

[Last modified October 15, 2005, 01:20:03]