Is anybody fooled?

I have been following President Bush's recent speech tour on terrorism and the ongoing threats to America. Of course yesterday he revealed what has been reported for some time: that the CIA has had secret interrogation camps overseas. He told us that he can not tell us the methods of interrogation at these camps for fear that the opposition would train their people against these techniques-but then assures us that the interrogations were tough but legal. Yeh! How many people believe that? And these camps were necessary to keep America safe. The ticking bomb scenario. No doubt many people agree with President Bush-torture is okay if it saves American lives.

But being Christian says that our treasure is in Heaven. That we'll avoid sin, avoid doing things that are wrong, that are an affront to human dignity, in order to gain everlasting happiness in Heaven. "Love your enemies" doesn't mean we do not put them in prison if they are criminals; but it does mean not to torture them. This exhortation appears over and over-especially in the New Testament-in different forms.

************************************

Now with respect to Mr. Bush's claim that we can not afford to stand by as Islamic terrorism grows-that if we ignore it, we are akin to Europe ignoring the rise of Hitler-I think he has a point. (However his term Islamic-Facism is unrelated and is probably ridiculous-although I would not be the expert.) The world must face the fact that much of Europe will have a Muslim majority sometime in this century, and that that history shows Muslim majorities rarely tolerate Christianity and move towards Islamic states. This concern is not the same as the one stated by our President-but it is related to it.

This situation must be faced. Europe is not facing it. However, Mr. Bush seems to believe that the war Iraq somehow addresses the issue of Islamic terrorism. (He doesn't address the issue of Islamic domination of Europe). I might buy Mr. Bush's argument if we were pursuing regime change in Syria and Iran. (Not that I am advocating either at this time.) But not in Iraq.