You have to wonder about the morality of politicians, bureaucrats and Americans of all types who are strongly against torture when it’s done to us while believing the end justifies the means when the U.S. tortures a declared enemy to gather information.

America, of course, has a long history of hypocrisy in this area. This is the country that called tribal people who resisted being eradicated uncivilized savages, while its soldiers slaughtered defenseless women and children. We are a nation, like many others, that quickly denounces the human-rights actions of adversaries while sanctimoniously forgetting about our own violations. Perhaps we should practice what we preach.

Still, many Americans put torture in the same category with slavery, genocide and rape, and have been appalled by abusive actions against suspected terrorists at Abu Grhaib prison in Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. But, as could be expected, polls indicate that Americans are split on the issue of “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

That includes many people of faith – representing a wide-variety of religions – and is probably the case on Bainbridge Island, where at least three churches – Eagle Harbor Congregational, Cedars Unitarian Universalist and Seabold United Methodist – have flown banners that decry the use of torture by U.S. intelligence and military personnel. For example, while some 70 members of the Unitarian church have distributed a group photograph after signing a “Statement of Conscience” against torture, that leaves more than half of the 150-member church deciding against taking such a stand.

To some, the issue is far from being black and white because of the obvious need to protect one’s own at a time of conflict, while others believe our attitude toward peoples of different religions and beliefs is indicative of the country being involved in what many call “an illegal war.”

That’s certainly the case for Donna Moore, a member of the Unitarian fellowship and a “Woman in Black” who has become decidedly anti-war since retiring as a State Department personnel employee – working about 15 years in U.S. embassies in foreign countries.

Moore believes the elders of her church “needed to stand up and be counted” in order to set an example for the younger members. She considers taking a stand against torture as a simple act of living out the biblical golden rule of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture has mounted a campaign against such abuses, which was fueled in March by President Bush’s veto of a bill Congress had passed that would have required the CIA and other agencies to conform to the Army Field Manual in their interrogations. The manual prohibits the use of waterboarding, military dogs, beatings, electric shock and other techniques.

The campaign asks Americans to sign a statement of conscience that torture is a moral issue and that such practices should be abolished, without exceptions. NRCAT says more than 25,000 individuals have signed the statement so far, with the goal of many thousands more signing it in hopes of having Congress pass the legislation in 2009 and then have the new president sign it into law.

When people argue for the need of “enhanced techniques,” they often take the position that the enemy will use whatever means is necessary to extract information and that the United States needs to meet force with force in order to win this war against terrorism. If so, counter those against torture, with such actions how do we differentiate ourselves from our enemies in terms of higher values? Can’t this war be won with the United States retaining its own best self? We’ve often managed to overcome past enemies by remaining true to our highest human-rights values, so what has changed?

The enemy, perhaps, but our nation needs to resist the temptation of becoming just like the monsters we are trying to subjugate.