This morning I woke up at “Oh Dark Thirty” (5:30am for you civilians) and by 6:34 was on a train heading to San Mateo for a meeting with staffers of Representative Jackie Speier (D – California) to talk about torture. The organizer of this gathering (BARCAT – Bay Area Religious Campaign Against Torture) had asked each person in the delegation to be prepared to share ONE thing about torture, that represented their unique perspective on the issue. I wear many hats when I attend such a meeting. Today, I was representing Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice, a ragtag group of folks from various faith traditions who have been working for peace and social justice since the lead up to the Iraq war. I call myself a Jewbyterian, Jewish by birth, Jewish in much of my spirituality, but who spends most of my time among progressive Presbyterians at the First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto.

It is often a challenge to decide which one of the many hats I invisibly wear will be the one in which I hold the story I’ll tell when my turn around the table arrives. This morning I knew that what would be most unique about me was my military service. So I wore my Air Force cover (military-speak for hat), and told the staffers (paraphrasing):

“I’m a military intelligence veteran. In my work, I had to have faith that when I was following a lawful order, one that I believed was lawful, that my chain of command, all the way up to the President, would be there for me. And, if for some reason the chain of command wasn’t there, that I would be protected by our country’s judicial branch. But if even there, something went wrong, I could count on Congress. Similarly, I had to have faith that if someone gave me an unlawful order, one that I felt I needed to refuse, that I could count on my chain of command, our nation’s judicial branch, or Congress, to stand with me, to have my back. On the issue of torture, the chain of command, the executive branch, failed our soldiers and our civilian intelligence professionals. Our Congress has failed us. The courts, when given the opportunity, have made some good decisions. But our troops deserve better than what Congress has delivered. You’re supposed to have our backs – to be there for us – to support us.”

In Basic Training, one of the first chants we learned was “Duty, Honor, Country!” From day one, we learned how to be part of a team, how to obey orders, how to lead others, how to be there for each other. No matter where we came from, what color we were, how tall or short we were, whatever, we were part of an honorable, duty-driven, team. We could count on each other, the chain of command, our fellow country-folks, Congress, the courts…… and our job was to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies.

As a 20 year-old serving in Korea two years after Basic Training, I found myself in a difficult situation. A newly-minted second Lieutenant gave me an order, one that I felt was unlawful. More importantly, I felt that if I carried it out, I would be endangering people. I can’t go into details because my work at that time was classified. Refusing his order, I was incredibly nervous. I believed in my heart that I was right, but I knew that the consequences for refusing an order could be severe. I could be court-martialed, jailed, kicked out of the military, ruined. Still, in the short two years I had spent in the Air Force, I had been trained, had had great discussions about what to do in such a situation, and in this instance, I felt strongly that to obey his order would be wrong. He yelled at me. He threatened me. He warned me that “this wasn’t over” and stormed off. I stood my ground. Four hours later, another officer told me that he had looked into the situation and that I had been correct to refuse the order. The lieutenant came by and apologized. We shook hands and for months afterwards worked together in a mutually respectful way.

Refusing that order was possible because I had faith in myself, my chain of command, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, my elected representatives, our judiciary, our Congress. I also understood that if I was wrong, I’d have to pay the consequences.

What can our military believe today? We’ve seen low-ranking guards from Abu-Ghraib sent to prison for piling naked prisoners in a pyramid, putting prisoners on leashes, and pointing thumbs-up at their penises. They’d been ordered to “soften” those prisoners up for interrogators, who according to reports, slapped those prisoners, bashed their heads into walls, shackled and put them into stress positions, deprived those prisoners of sleep, performed mock executions in front of them, raped some of them with “instruments,” and even killed some of those prisoners. Were those acts illegal? Not according to John Yoo, or the Attorney General, or the Vice President and President. But those members of the executive branch were wrong. All of those acts, from the humiliation inflicted by low-ranking noncoms to the assault, battery, rape, and murder committed by CIA contractors, were illegal, immoral, criminal acts that needed to be punished.

Sadly, a majority of Americans who attend church once a week believe that it is OK to torture prisoners, if national security is at stake (according to a Pew research report).

Well, here’s the problem with that kind of thinking. Our freedom depends on our military AND civilians in the executive branch doing their jobs based on the rule of law. If we the people don’t insist on the rule of law being supreme, and the defense of the Constitution being our highest duty, how are our troops supposed to faithfully follow orders, and when necessary, faithfully refuse what they believe to be unlawful orders? If it is OK to water-board a prisoner, isn’t it OK to make him parade around naked? If it is OK to slam a prisoner’s head against a wall, isn’t it OK to make him wear women’s underwear on his head? If it is OK to shackle a prisoner’s arms to a wall and make him hang there in terrible pain for hours, isn’t it OK to……… need I go on?

None of those things are OK, according to United States law, the Geneva Conventions, or the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Before leaving the meeting with Representative Speier’s two wonderful staffers, I felt compelled to don another hat. “My father, A Jewish-American soldier, was at Dachau at the end of WWII. He was there while Nazi officers were being tried for war crimes. One afternoon, my father was part of a group escorting a prisoner back to his cell, after hearing about the way Jews had been placed into barrels of ice to see how long they could withstand freezing. The Nazi officer made a joke about Jews in front of my father. My father’s friends had to hold him back to keep him from beating the hell out of the guy. Why did they hold him back? Because they knew the rules, because that Nazi was entitled to be tried, because we were better than the Nazis, we were Americans.”

We are better than that, aren’t we?

Congress has the responsibility to investigate possible abuses by the executive branch, not just while one administration is in power, but even after they have left. Congress has the responsibility to create legislation that endures from one administration to the next and the responsibility to ensure that laws and treaties and conventions that are the law of the land are obeyed. President Bush and his administration violated a sacred trust, of that I am personally convinced. Congress has the job of determining for themselves if that is true. Evidence gathered by Congress can be used by the current administration to prosecute criminals. Juries can decide if those who are prosecuted are guilty. Today’s President and tomorrow’s can look at those who are convicted and pardon them if there’s a belief that they broke the law but their intentions were good.

We have a system in place for dealing with these kinds of things. Our troops believe in that system, they risk their lives to defend it, and so many of our troops have died for that cause, our freedom.

The executive branch has failed our troops. The courts are waiting to hear the cases. It is up to Congress to investigate what happened from 2001 until now, share what it learns, and legislate as needed to uphold the sacred trust they’ve been given.

Duty, honor, and country.

Get to work.