Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 3, 2008

William Kristol, Fox News commentator and columnist for the New York Times, has urged President Bush to issue pre-emptive pardons for any official who violated laws against torture. The point of those pardons, Kristol insists, would be to show ?how [the] administration's ? interrogation ? policies have helped keep us safe.?

Kristol, a soft-bodied neo-conservative media celebrity, has never worn a uniform or experienced a conflict more intense than a sharp exchange of words.

Matthew Alexander, by way of contrast, is a combat helicopter pilot who became a successful counter-intelligence agent before his combat tour in Iraq.

Alexander describes the administration?s torture techniques, which he rejected, as ?deeply flawed, ineffective, and un-American,? and states flatly that ?Torture and abuse cost American lives? by recruiting additional fighters, both foreign and native-born, to the cause of expelling the American occupation.

Speaking from experience, Alexander concludes that torture is not only morally wrong, but counter-productive.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.