The poet William Stafford set himself the task of writing a poem a day. When someone asked him what he would do when his poem-of-the-day wasn't very good, he replied "I simply lower my standards." In order to increase output, the bar here is set at a low level - the point of this is to have some fun with current events and politics. I welcome contributions and comments. Now you can also follow Doggerelo on Twitter (@doggerelo). Because of continuing medical problems, I'm no longer able to post a poem-a-day. I'll continue to post poems, but at a reduced frequency, so please stay tuned.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Torture Candidates


 In last Saturday's debate, Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann stated that they would approve the use of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" on suspects suspected of terrorism.  Mitt Romney said nothing at the debate itself but his campaign later issued a statement stating that he did not consider waterboarding to be torture.  For more on this, see Frank Bruni's op-ed article.  

Bring back the waterboard they plead -
A splash of water on the face
Is not so bad and might succeed
In showing where a bomb’s in place. 

No way it’s torture, they object
It just enhances our requests
For information we collect
and use for terrorists’ arrests.

You’re wrong, Obama says to them,
It makes a man believe he’s drowned
And all authorities condemn
Its use as torture. We’ll be bound

By long-held precepts that have made
Our nation great; we’ll not descend
To practices our foes displayed
But keep our standards 'til the end.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not too surprising that this crew of Republican candidates are willing to forsake any of their standards in order to out Tea Party one another, but they should also keep in mind that many terrorism experts simply disagree with torture as it provides false information - i.e. I will say anything you want in order to stop this.

Ai ai ai me thinks that even Karl Rove needs a fifth of scotch to get through these Republican debates.

-Nessie