A couple days ago, U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey took the floor of the House of Representatives and made the following statement:

“At his press conference yesterday, President Bush insisted that the occupation of Iraq hasn’t damaged America’s moral standing in the world. But his administration’s policy of shooting first, asking questions later, has badly damaged our Nation’s moral authority.

The use of torture has damaged it even more. Yesterday President Bush called the human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib a disappointment. But in recent weeks we have seen convincing evidence that Abu Ghraib was the result of deliberate administration policy. Talk about disappointment.

In February of 2002, the President signed an order stating that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to members of al Qaeda or the Taliban. Then high-ranking American officials took a series of actions that made torture a part of our interrogation practices in Iraq and elsewhere. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was one of the officials who gave his stamp of approval.

A bipartisan report issued by the Senate Armed Services Committee on December 11 documented this illegal action and how these actions came about. According to the committee, the authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques by senior officials conveyed the message that it was okay to retreat and degrade.

Then a week after the committee issued its report, Vice President Cheney gave a shocking interview to the Washington Times. In the interview, he admitted that 33 prisoners were subjected to what he called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” That’s fancy bureaucratic language for torture. He even admitted that prisoners were subjected to waterboarding, which has been considered a form of torture ever since the Spanish Inquisition.

I know that conservatives like Vice President Cheney have looked backwards for their policies, but the 15th century, Mr. Speaker, is much too far back. Look at the consequences of these policies of war, occupation and torture. The Middle East continues to be in turmoil and flames. Iran’s influence continues to spread. People all around the globe have a negative opinion of the United States, which makes it much harder for us to get their help.”

Those are good observations from Representative Woolsey. Now let me turn those observations back to her with the following questions:

What can the Democratic Congress do to make sure that diplomacy, and not warfare, is the focus of the new Obama Administration? What role can the Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives have in that effort?