Texas Senator Ted Cruz is reminding Americans that no civilized nation should ever torture prisoners.
“Torture is wrong, unambiguously. Period. The end. Civilized nations do not engage in torture and Congress has rightly acted to make absolutely clear that the United States will not engage in torture,” Cruz said during the Q-and-A portion of a speech at the Heritage Foundation.
Cruz was reacting to the release of the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence report which detailed interrogation practices by the intelligence community in the aftermath of 9/11. He denounced it as a “partisan report” that endangered America’s foreign policy.
“Yesterday was a sad day for the United States and our friends and allies across the globe,” he said, pointing out that the “biased” report on U.S. intelligence personnel “weakened our nation.”
Cruz also pointed to the Obama administration’s tendency to blame former President George W. Bush to distract from its own failures, accusing the adminstration of “piling on” Bush at a time when “the world was on fire.”
“It demonstrates an approach that has characterized this administration for 6 years, which is everything, everything, is George W. Bush’s fault,” he said. “Enough already with blaming George W. Bush for every failure of this administration.”
Cruz emphasized the importance of the United States standing strong with foreign allies, and signaling strength to America’s enemies.
Although he was deeply critical of Obama’s foreign policy, Cruz explained that he was hopeful that the damage could be reversed in a new administration.
“It all comes down to whether foreign nations and foreign leaders can trust the president of the United States and I’m hopeful and optimistic that years from now, we will see a very different president whose word can be trusted by friend and foe alike,” he said.