We're Not As Bad As The Nazis!

That seems to be the rallying cry for the Right these days. In response to the brouhaha over Dick Durbin's comments about the recently declassified FBI report about prisoner abuse at Guantanamo, all the torture apologists on the Right have got seems to be the plainly self-evident fact that "we're not as bad as Nazis! We're not as bad as terrorists! We're not as bad as Stalin!"

Yay. That makes me feel so much better about my country. Unfortunately, I reserve the right to hold my birthplace to a higher standard.

No shit we're not as bad as Nazis, morons. We shouldn't even be in the same sentence. But sadly, as much as you want to hide from reality, we are in the same sentence. If all that matters to allow you to rest your head against the pillow at night is that the US is living up to a human rights standard slightly above that of the most despicable, despotic regimes in history, you've lost your own humanity. We're clearly torturing prisoners. It's clearly Administration policy. It's not coincidence that the same techniques at Abu Ghraib are the same techniques at Bagram are the same techniques at Guantanamo.

Let's forget for one second how incredibly inaccurate any information gleaned from torture typically is. The problem isn't that we're the same as Nazi Germany or the gulag-era Soviet Union; the problem is that we're not different enough. I don't know about you, but I'd like to think that being an American means you don't torture anyone. Ever. Not just because you don't want your own soldiers tortured (although that's an element); not just because you inflame your enemies and lose your moral standing; but because it's totally fucking wrong. End of story. You're either for torture or you're against it. Among the many rationales for this adventure in Iraq were ominous references to Saddam's torture chambers and rape rooms. Those now defending torture on US soil because they perceive we do it a little nicer have lost it. Even Andrew Sullivan can see this. Tell you what, there's an easy way out of these comparisons: stop torturing human beings. Especially stop torturing the ones on our side:

A U.S. military policeman who was beaten by fellow MPs during a botched training drill at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for detainees has sued the Pentagon for $15 million, alleging that the incident violated his constitutional rights.

Spc. Sean D. Baker, 38, was assaulted in January 2003 after he volunteered to wear an orange jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee. Baker said the MPs, who were told that he was an unruly detainee who had assaulted an American sergeant, inflicted a beating that resulted in a traumatic brain injury.

Baker, a Gulf War veteran who reenlisted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was medically retired in April 2004. He said the assault left him with seizures, blackouts, headaches, insomnia and psychological problems.

The Pentagon initially said that Baker's hospitalization following the training incident was not related to the beating. Later, officials conceded that he was treated for injuries suffered when a five-man MP "internal reaction force" choked him, slammed his head several times against a concrete floor and sprayed him with pepper gas.

The drill took place in a prison isolation wing reserved for suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees who were disruptive or had attacked MPs.

Baker said he put on the jumpsuit and squeezed under a prison bunk after being told by a lieutenant that he would be portraying an unruly detainee. He said he was assured that MPs conducting the "extraction drill" knew it was a training exercise and that Baker was an American soldier.

As he was being choked and beaten, Baker said, he screamed a code word, "red," and shouted: "I'm a U.S. soldier! I'm a U.S. soldier!" He said the beating continued until the jumpsuit was yanked down during the struggle, revealing his military uniform.

No one has been disciplined or punished for the assault, said Baker's lawyer, T. Bruce Simpson Jr.

These apologists on the Right that are "outraged at the outrage," as Sen. James Inhofe put it last year, make me sick. America is no place for such moral relativism. Either you're with us or you're with the torturers. I'll let you figure out where the "I (heart) Gitmo" T-shirt hawkers over at the "Blog of the Year" stand.