Torture the opposition.

Editor,

More than morality and Americans' standing in the eyes of the world hinge on George Bush's campaign to legalize torture, legitimize kangaroo courts, and do away with habeas corpus. Given the ruthlessness with which he and his henchmen go about destroying individuals who oppose them, it doesn't take much imagination to envision these "tools" for "combating terror" being used against George Bush's political enemies.

The premise of Herbert A. Philbrick's TV show "I Led Three Lives" was that American citizens do not fear a "knock on the door" in the "middle of the night," because our Constitution forbids one's being carted away to arbitrary detention, torture, or liquidation because of one's political views. Now, given that giant corporations own our government and that our government represents their interests not the interests of ordinary citizens, the syllogism becomes that to organize for workers' rights or for regulation of big business is "terrorism" and is punishable by disappearance, torture, and death -- precisely the logic employed by 60 years of American installed dictators throughout the developing world.