Culture of Life?

"We must continue to work for a culture of life where the strong protect the weak and where we recognize in every human life the image of our creator," Bush said at the national Catholic prayer breakfast on April 13th.

Okay. What to make of the following then?

• Detention of individuals without any redress in the courts
• Extraordinary renditions, in which detainees are transported by the U.S. government to the custody of countries which employ torture, in their interrogation methods
• Torture of detainees in Guantanamo and other "secret prisons”

It is easy to call Bush a hypocrite, which he is. But, his transgressions are bigger than hypocrisy. He has created and presided over an administration which demonstrates wholesale disregard and contempt for human life and basic human rights. My point is that he is immoral. He is unethical.

Through his presidency, he has created institutions which degrade the human condition and erode the legal, moral, and ethical constructs of human rights. His actions, and actions of those acting on his behalf, promote and facilitate cruelty. As the head of state, he has dragged the United States into a cesspool of torture and abuse. There are many cogs in the mechanisms which facilitate these violations – they include the President himself, the U.S. personnel who use torture and abuse as interrogation techniques, our elected officials who have authorized or enabled such actions, and every American citizen who has not cried out in protest. We are all complicit. Speculation abounds about what Bush’s “legacy” will be. His legacy will be degradation of the human condition. And, until these actions stop, this legacy will be shared by all Americans.