What would Sid Meier say?

The Senate passed the torture bill, aka The Military Commissions Act of 2006, yesterday, W is expected to sign.

Here's what the bill lacks.

Any proof of guilt before torture is allowed.

Any threshold of what constitutes a torturable event. For example it does not say, "If a bomb is about to go off in NYC and the suspect knows where it is, then it is permissible to torture." There is no minimum offense, or standard of information required to allow torture.

No requirement to keep records of how many are tortured, why they were tortured and under what methods.

No recourse for the tortured if they are innocent or do not have the information. In fact, since there is no requirement period for releasing anyone brought into custody, if you are embarrassing enough, you may never get released. Innocent, tortured, and life in prison.

So to recap. After careful consideration by our House and Senate, and at the President's urging, we are now a nation that can torture a mysterious number of innocent people, for any reason, and keep them locked up forever, without oversight or recourse by anyone outside those who are doing the torturing.

Mr. Bush said this is a battle for civilization.

He's right, they are destroying our civilization.

I'll let you decide who "they" are.