Andrew Sullivan has been relentless in denouncing the practice of torture on terrorist suspects. Meanwhile, on the radio I hear the conservative pundits like Limbaugh making fun of McCain for try to restrict the types of techniques used on terrorist suspects.

Terrorists don't show any respect for international law or human rights, so the argument goes, so we shouldn't feel bad about doing whatever we want to them. From hearing the radio guys, it sounds like they'd advocate an "anything goes" approach...not just the warm and fuzzy waterboarding (controlled drowning of suspects), forced standing (for 24 hour periods), and sleep deprivation. I guess they'd go whole hog for pulling out hair and teeth, blowtorches, and electrodes on the genetalia. I mean, they're terrorists, right?

They've got no standards, so why should we?

Thing is, why doesn't that apply to American criminals? Or international criminals in our jurisdiction. We've got plenty of bad people here that don't abide by any sort of standard of human rights. So why isn't it legal for a policeman to start burning or slicing up suspects here? Same logic applies, right?

Murderers, rapists, and child molesters all have no decency, so why don't we pull their fingernails out to get confessions, or to tell us where the evidence is?

How about because we do have standards of decency, and that's what sets us apart from people who have none at all. Or at least...it's supposed to.