I find the moral indignation and hand-wringing like that over at RedState.org a bit tiresome. Did Amnesty International use intemperate language terming Guantanamo as a gulag? Perhaps. But, the United States of America, forbidden to deprive people of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, is depriving people of life and liberty without due process of law. We have engaged in torture. We are doing those things that used to make the other guys the bad guys; the not doing of which used to make us the good guys. So, I can’t fault Amnesty International for a bit of intemperate language.
I am reminded of William Lloyd Garrison’s editorial in the inaugural edition of “The Liberator” in which he held forth against the peculiar determination of certain Southerners to own people. He said:
I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.
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