Defending Andrew Sullivan

I know Andrew Sullivan is perfectly capable of defending himself, but there have been a number of commentators who seem willfully dense in comprehending the difference between his criticism of George W. Bush and taking "sides" with the Islamic fascists.

This post on Protein Wisdom and some of the followup comments inspired me to respond:

First off, waterboarding is torture, no matter how you slice it. The U.S. waterboards prisoners. Ergo, the U.S. tortures prisoners.

While there are certainly some leftists who claim "moral equivalency" between the U.S.'s torture program and the Islamic lunatics who get their jollies off of blowing people up and cutting their heads off, Sullivan (and others, including me) have NOT said there is a moral equivalency at work there.

The point that he HAS made on torture is that there is a distinct difference between a U.S.A. that prides itself on always treating prisoners with respect and is thus able to claim the moral high ground in any battle and the new U.S. military that only tortures moderately and can thus only pride itself on being able to say "Hey look, we're not as bad as Saddam Hussein." It's gone from being a difference in kind to a
difference of degree.

Not only is that intrinsically immoral, but it hurts our position in Iraq. Part of the whole purpose of the war in Iraq is to win over the hearts and minds of the Muslim and Arab world, to set up an attractive example that proves that democracy and Western ideals are superior ways to order society than the tyranny of a dictator or theocracy. When the U.S. rounds up suspects willy-nilly, throws them into Abu Ghraib, and tortures them to get worthless intelligence, the locals tend to take it personally.

Moreover, people discuss and debate the behavior of the U.S. military instead of
discussing and debating the behavior of Islamist insurgents because the U.S. is a democracy where public opinion and criticism matter, while the Islamist thugs are, shall we say, not exactly open to reasoned debate on their goals and tactics.

We need to be aware of the depth of the evil of our enemies, but the U.S.--- a country founded on universal principles, not on geography or ethnicity--- needs to be able to convince everyday Iraqis that we're the people whose example they should follow, with whom they should ally themselves.

One point on which I do agree with Sullivan's critics is that his criticism of Bush's policies in general coincided awfully nicely with his realization that Bush was actively opposed to gay marriage. Before that, Sullivan held out for quite a while trying to convince himself that Bush was somehow in favor of a libertarian, hands-off approach to gay marriage. Does this lessen Sullivan's argument? It does make his criticism of Bush seem personal, yes, but he's done a pretty thorough job of explaining his position, and of defending the right to change one's mind.