That’s what Bush’s former Secretary of State Colin Powell says, as he joins the ranks of Senators McCain and Warner to stop the Bush attempt to legalize certain forms of torture, including waterboarding.
The Bush Administration wanted to spin this as the "fighting GOP" versus the "appeasing Democrats", but see how this is playing out?
Here’s a hint: What do Colin Powell, Senator McCain, and Senator Warner all have in common (aside from being Republicans)?
Answer: They were all distinguished soldiers who served. And they agree with Democrats that the Bush plan to legalize torture is (a) bad for America and (b) bad for our troops.
Here’s the latest from AP:
A rebellious Senate committee defied President Bush on Thursday and approved terror-detainee legislation he has vowed to block, deepening Republican conflict over a key issue in the middle of congressional campaigns.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, pushed the measure through his panel by a 15-9 vote, with Warner and three other GOP lawmakers joining Democrats. The vote set the stage for a showdown on the Senate floor as early as next week.
Earlier in the day, Bush had journeyed to the Capitol to try nailing down support for his own version of the legislation.
"I will resist any bill that does not enable this program to go forward with legal clarity," Bush said at the White House after his meeting with lawmakers.
The president’s measure would go further than the Senate package in allowing classified evidence to be withheld from defendants in terror trials, using coerced testimony and protecting U.S. interrogators against legal prosecution for using methods that violate the Geneva Conventions
The internal GOP struggle intensified along other fronts, too, as Colin Powell, secretary of state during Bush’s first administration, declared his opposition to the president’s plan.
"The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," Powell, a retired general who is also a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a letter.
Powell said that Bush’s bill, by redefining the kind of treatment the Geneva Conventions allow, "would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk."