The old labor union song "Which Side Are You On?," written for the coal mines in Harlan County, should be updated to ask the Democrat senators attacking CIA nominee Gina Haspel.

Democratic senators, led by Senator Kamala Harris, who is running for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, viciously attacked Haspel for her role in implementing the George W. Bush administration policy of waterboarding three (3) terrorists, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein (better known as Abu Zubaida), and Abd al-Rahim al-Nash. 

KSM was the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attack that killed over three thousand (3,000) Americans.  The Kamala Harris bunch is more upset that three (3) terrorists were waterboarded than that three thousand (3,000) Americans were killed because of the conduct of the three (3) terrorists.

Ms. Haspel told Senator Wyden:

After 9/11 ... I stepped up.  I was not on the sidelines, I was on the frontlines in the Cold War and I was on the frontlines in the fight against Al Qaeda[.]

While Ms. Haspel worked to defend our country after the 9/11 attack, Senators Wyden, Harris, and Reed, and the other Monday-morning quarterbacks were playing in the swamp.  Yet these swamp-dwellers now claim the moral high ground to attack Ms. Haspel for doing her duty to defend our country.

Since KSM was the mastermind of 9/11, there should be no question that he deserves the death penalty.  If he can be put to death, then what is the problem with waterboarding him to obtain information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, and about other terrorist threats?  We can execute him but not waterboard him?

One principle to support the death penalty is the principle of retributive justice.

It is not revenge, but acceptance that there are important values to the right to life of innocent Americans, which must be upheld for the sake of a just and orderly society.  This means that the government must punish by appropriate and proportionate punishment the terrorists who kill Americans.  There is no rehabilitation for the perpetrators of   terrorist attacks, only punishment to fit the crime.

It means we hold the terrorists responsible for their conduct, not merely that they be treated and rehabilitated.  There is no rehabilitation for those who planned and killed over three thousand Americans on September 11.  They must be punished to prevent similar attacks by terrorists determined to kill us.

Applying this principle to those terrorists who planned 9/11, and had knowledge of future attacks, it was the responsibility of the government to punish and find out about future attacks.  This was the reason for waterboarding.  The waterboarding was simply part of the responsible and necessary response by our government to protect Americans to prevent future attacks and to find Osama bin Laden.  These senators now criticizing Haspel did not criticize Obama when he ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden or the use of drones to kill terrorists.

But the Democrat senators do not seem to care.  They are more concerned about promoting their political careers by opposing waterboarding that occurred fifteen years ago.  They attack Gina Haspel because she was nominated by President Trump to further their political careers.  They act more concerned about the three terrorists than the safety of Americans.

Senators Harris, Reed, Wyden, Heinrich, Warner, Feinstein, et al.:  "Which Side Are You On?"