…but I can’t wait to see Turner & Hooch II.

I just watched this truly sad and stunning exchange between Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser at Guantanamo Bay.

During a Senate hearing, Graham asks Hartmann if the Iranian government’s hypothetical waterboarding of a downed American pilot would consititute a violation of the Geneva Convention. It’s a direct question that should have a simple answer and I think most American’s would agree that the answer should be “yes”. And yet Hartmann cannot answer.

GRAHAM: You mean you’re not equipped to give a legal opinion as to whether or not Iranian military waterboarding, secret security agents waterboarding downed airmen is a violation of the Geneva Convention?

HARTMANN: I am not prepared to answer that question, Senator.

This is where the Bush Administrations muddled policies on torture have brought us. What was once clear, that torture is the infliction of severe mental or physical pain or suffering to extract information, is clear no longer. By employing Orwellian euphemisms like “enhanced interrogation” and “aggresive questioning” Bush and his lawyers have created a situation where a U.S. military lawyer cannot say he would defend one of his brothers-in-arms, let alone proclaim that the U.S. is opposed to torture.

America is losing the moral high ground.