Bush and torture

The president goes to Capitol Hill to lobby for torture.

PRESIDENT BUSH rarely visits Congress. So it was a measure of his painfully skewed priorities that Mr. Bush made the unaccustomed trip yesterday to seek legislative permission for the CIA to make people disappear into secret prisons and have information extracted from them by means he dare not describe publicly.

Bush considers himself a wartime president. Unfortunately, it's true. When the strongest moral and ethical leadership is required to navigate the murk, Bush takes the easy low road. Our only hope for ending the war on terror is to lead the world by example. They cut off heads - we don't. They torture- we don't. We are a liberal republic governed by consensus under the rule of law - they aren't. The minute that line is blurred, the war becomes endless and unwinnable. It's unfortunate for us all that Mr. Bush is so taken by his starring role in the death parade that he forgets the country and principles he is supposedly protecting.