The Handcuffs We Willingly Wear

When Dave Barry wrote of the “handcuffs we willingly wear” it was two days after the September 11 attacks. He was talking about how our country would respond to the horrific murder of three thousand innocent American men, women and children – that even in war we would do whatever we could to spare the innocent. He was responding to those wickedly cheering the 9/11 attacks saying America deserved them.

The “handcuffs” being discussed today go far beyond those discussed by Barry seven years ago. Many critics of the former administration believe the “handcuffs” we must wear when trying to prevent future “man-made disasters” include a ban on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” particularly waterboarding. Many on the left are telling us that we have not been a decent people. We are being told that those tasked with keeping us safe for the past eight years acted immorally and now they must pay a price.

Last week the New York Times and some Democratic congressmen called for the impeachment of Federal Judge Jay Bybee, because “as an assistant attorney general, he was the author of the Aug. 1, 2002, memo endorsing strong interrogation ‘techniques’". Numerous leftwing commenters have invoked Nuremberg, saying that following orders to carry out the enhanced interrogation techniques is no excuse. One headline even read “The USA Hung’em at Nuremberg – The USA Hung Saddam – HANG BYBEE!” [snip]

Most Americans can tell the difference between following orders to gas innocent men, women and children to death in Nazi concentration camps in the service of a murderous psychopath and following orders to make a suspected (and sometimes confessed) terrorist believe he might be drowning in order to extract information in an effort to save the lives of thousands of innocents.

Don’t expect Americans to look favorably on an administration willing to compromise national security to settle political scores...

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