Identify and punish

Regarding the editorial, “Poppies and Torture” (BDN, May 24).

I agree wholeheartedly that higher-ups responsible for manipulating official policy to permit what has become a pattern of prisoner torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay must be identified and punished

I think I can help with the identification part: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. As any newspaper reader knows, Gonzales, as White House counsel, drafted a memo condoning the use of torture and dismissing the Geneva Conventions on POWs as “quaint” and “obsolete.”

There, I’ve done my part for the identification part.

In terms of punishment, I think removal from office would be a good start. As the Bush administration is extremely unlikely to fire Gonzales, perhaps Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins would like to do their job, which is to protect and defend the interests of the people of this country, by calling for the ouster of Gonzales, whose reckless defense of torture has needlessly angered people throughout the world, needlessly created untold numbers of new enemies for this country to deal with, and needlessly increased the already extreme level of danger faced by U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Lawrence Reichard

East Orland