"torture exhaustion"? Try that excuse on the tortured

excerpted from Yoo Two By Scott Horton, April 3, 2008:

I'm still haunted by a question a student put to me following a presentation I made at Columbia University on Tuesday evening. "If the bar is so serious about this," the student said, "then explain to me how it's possible that John Yoo and his confederates haven't been disbarred." I started to answer about the complexity of the disbarrment process, but I stopped. The student was right. If the bar were serious about this, it should have used its disciplinary tools to deal with it. This is not a case of an eccentric academic mouthing some cock-eyed theories. It is about a government official using the power of a government office to induce people to commit serious crimes...

I was amazed speaking with colleagues today who expressed their "torture exhaustion." "But we already knew all this," one said to me. "But how can you know about it, know that the nightmare still hasn't stopped, and not be infuriated?" I answered. "Have you abandoned all sense of ownership, or at least of participation, in the American idea?"...

Silence will buy us a continuation of this corruption of our nation. But isn't it worth raising your voice and articulating your anger to get our country back? It should start with insisting that Congress use the tools it has-oversight and the budget-to force changes. Say "no" to torture; it's an easy first step on the road back to decency.