About a week ago, the White House released those secret memos that pretty much declares America has been torturing people for years now. A few people were against the Obama administration releasing those for security reasons and a few people were outraged over why those people who are responsible for the memos and the torture are not in jail? But the most interesting part of the story came later.
First Obama declared that he will not prosecute those responsible so America can move forward, then in response to human right groups furious over that statement, he retracted by saying, it is all up to AG Holder. Granted that is a pretty big flip flop but still the climax is yet to come.
Fox News held specials trying to explain how putting a man in an extremely small space with insects or simulating drowning by waterboarding is not torture.
The American public did nothing.
I did not see demonstrations in the streets, I did not see petitions to hold those responsible accountable, I did not see people condemning this self-defined act of torture.
The fact of the matter is until we speak out (pretty loudly) against what happened, apologize and put rules in place to make sure that the next nut job president will not do the same thing, we have to rid ourselves of the phrase "the greatest country in the world." We have to stop calling ourselves "the land of the free and the home of the brave." We have to admit that we are as human and imperfect as any other nation on Earth and we are not special.
If you do believe that what we did is torture, then you need to ensure the greatness of your country by speaking out against it, but if you do not believe what we did was torture then you need to write a little apology letter to the families of those Japanese soldiers who waterboarded our soldiers (fearing a nuclear attack which did come) then were hanged by us for torture. Let's see Fox News twist this.
we did what we had to do
ReplyDeleteanyone else in our shoes would have done the same thing
what about the arabian prince who tortured his partner, huh?
Then what have you become Mr Anonymous? What price does your so called "security" cost? The price of torture and simulated drowning is a price you would willingly pay? By using the methods mentioned, your government played straight into the hands of your enemy. The negative publicity is priceless and will fuel many more terrorists to perform similar acts.
ReplyDeleteTorture does not replace real intelligence and hard work.
I'm so glad to be Canadian.. even if our stupid conservative PM is still aligned on Bush.
ReplyDeleteAll we do is loose fighters to the Talibans in Afghanistan - a sad outcome but not (so far) tainted with such moral prejudice.