Yesterday, we wrote about dissent, something that's not tolerated in the Bush administration. In the interest of fairness, I thought we'd write today about something they seem to be OK with.

The Washington Monthly has published a series of essays in their current issue from a number of leading politicians and high ranking military officials on the subject of America's use of torture, including one from Senator Kerry. The conclusion by all?

Stop.

Nothing has done more to undercut America's struggle against extremism than the Bush administration's squandering of our nation's good reputation. The torture, abuse, unlawful detention, and related un-American practices associated with Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and CIA interrogations at "black sites" have been as unwise as they have been unprincipled. Most of us can agree that sometimes, in the name of national security, it is necessary to make difficult ethical decisions to protect the American people. However, the administration's dangerous and counterproductive choice to employ torture has severely weakened our ability to win the struggle against extremism. It has also wasted our greatest asset: our moral authority. - John Kerry

The purpose of the series of articles, as Republicans prepared to uphold President Bush's veto of ban on torture, is to encourage the three Presidential candidates to speak out on the topic. All three have in the past, although Senator McCain, in his lust for the presidency, has recently changed his position. Seems he was against torture before he was for it. Pretty shocking from someone who was actually subject to torture back in his POW days, and sad that McCain is willing to set aside his sense of right and wrong and hang on to Bush's threadbare coattails.

The issue has come up on the Democratic side, with Barack Obama citing a Clinton quote where she wavered in her opposition. For the most part, both have spoken out strongly against the use of torture, although Clinton has cited exceptions.

Even if the Republicans in Congress and the Bush administration are not willing to consider the moral implications, they should at least consider the lack of success in intelligence gathering via torture, as a new study - Epistemic Systems - has shown:

KEY FINDINGS FROM THE STUDY

• Torture is not an effective means to gather information.
• Torturers do not know the truth when they hear it. Torture victims understand this fact and therefore hide the truth.
• Torturers cannot make a believable promise to stop torture when they hear the truth. Torture victims understand this fact and therefore hide the truth.

Some, though, have been consistent in defending America's moral values. We've posted this video before, but it's worth a replay. Senator Kerry spoke on the Senate floor in September, 2006 in opposition to the Republican torture bill.