Some have criticized the act because it apparently “leaves out” some acts and therefore, the argument goes, implicitly makes them legal. That might be true if the MCA were the only law on the subject, but it is not. Additionally, the MCA defines only what are “war crimes” – there are acts that do not rise to the level of “war crime” yet are still illegal and prosecutable under US law. For example, some have claimed that certain kinds of rape are acceptable under the MCA but those critics neglect to mention that such abuses are not permitted under other law, such as McCain’s Detainee Treatment Act, the CAT (which is the only international treaty that actually defines “torture”), etc.

The MCA, obviously, is not perfect and there are a few areas I think should be and could be changed. Still, critics of McCain seem to think he should vote against any legislation that’s not perfect. In such a case, no legislation would ever get passed. Better to have an imperfect law now – a law that can be amended – than to have no law at all. Rarely does the first iteration of legislation come out “perfect.”

I wonder why the critics of McCain, who has done more than any other elected official of the US to prohibit detainee abuse, are not equally critical of rest of the US Senate which has done nothing.