Is this still America? If so, then I am changing my blog’s name to The Twilight Zone.
Some great American in this great American book had this line about America ... I’m paraphrasing, but basically he said, if our nation is not strong enough to get through a crisis like 9/11 without selling our soul, without changing who we are, without becoming just like the terrorists, than maybe this nation is not worth saving. Seriously people, what is the point of fighting terrorists if we, too, become terrorists?
Here are just some of the reasons corporate news has given us in defense of torture:
- Oh, but it was only a caterpillar.
- Oh, it’s only water. Do you get mad when you get wet at the beach? It’s the same thing at Guantanamo.
- But I can think of a million reasons why it would be valuable to torture ...
- Dick Cheney can prove it works.
- We can’t torture POWs, but if we call them something else, than we CAN torture them.
- It’s just the use of aggressive techniques…we only slapped the guy a couple of times.
- What should we do—hug them?
Bullshit. Some news anchors on television, like Sean Hannity of Fox News, have said they believe so much that waterboarding does not constitute torture that they would volunteer to be waterboarded. But I highly doubt that the experience would be the same for Hannity, who would be waterboarded for television, as it was for terror suspects who were waterboarded for information. President Bush even admitted that two suspected terrorists were waterboarded a total of 300 times.
If you have a point to make, there is a way to do it. State your claim, and provide dates and facts to back it up. So we have a case where two men were extensively waterboarded—then let’s study the situation and the information produced to see if it works. But in this case, unfortunately, we can do no such thing. Why is that? Because the CIA admitted to destroying 92 video tapes depicting the torture.
It doesn’t help your case much (the one that claims waterboarding works) when all the files and videotapes have been destroyed.
Then you have John McCain, a man who was once tortured, saying it does not work. In a Fox News interview, Mcain talks about sitting down with a member of al Quada in Iraq and finding out that they were able to recruit a large number of fighters based on the U.S. torture scandal at Abu Grahb prison in Iraq. You have members of the CIA saying it doesn’t work, saying that these guys will say anything if you abuse them enough. And according to a recent Bill Moyers investigation, some prisoners even began going mad and couldn’t even remember what they told the interrogators.
By the way, did you know we once prosecuted Japanese soldiers after WWII for torture? And guess what for: waterboarding.
This is so infuriating, that my fellow citizens can come up with a million good reasons to torture another human being. Could any of you become the torturer?
And now what are we hearing in the news: See, we told you, all those guys we tortured in Guantanamo have gone back to join the Taliban. Really? That is one perspective. A perspective grounded in very little fact. I would make the opposite point. We created the terrorist. We took what could have been a regular guy, a guy who just wanted to have a good life like anyone else, a good job, and a good family. We took him away from his home in the middle of the night and shipped him to a prison where we tortured him day and night for an interminable amount of time. (Some suspects were not allowed to sleep for months because of loud music and bright lights.) This man was broken down in the name of America, allegedly to protect our freedom. Can we really be shocked that, when released, he now harbors hate and feelings of revenge for the country that stole his life?
When we first invaded Afghanistan, we offered so much money for Taliban prisoners that warlords were grabbing anyone off the street and turning them over to the U.S. as Taliban fighters to get their reward. And then we shipped them off to Guantanamo Bay. It’s as if we focused on statistics alone without factoring in the culture and political motivations at work in the region, or even the human condition. It seems like no one said, “What is the plan in case an innocent man is swept up? We should have a way to filter him from the terror suspects…because that would really suck if I was picked up falsely as a terror suspect.”
This is the true test of a nation, how we act when times are tough, when our backs are against the wall. Will the elite that run this country let these lowest forms of life who approved these techniques breath free air, or will they throw them in jail where they belong? Award-winning blogger Juan Cole says, “Crimes were committed. If they are not addressed, they will become norms, not crimes.”
You can scream all you want about how they want to kill us and our kids and our grandmothers and that this is the only way to stop them, but deep down you know, at least I hope you know, that that’s not true.
So thanks to those who ran our nation and advocated torture. Now we are in a class along with North Korea, Iran, and Saddam’s Iraq. No wonder why Bush found it so easy to find the axis of evil—it takes one to know one. Maybe we should hang the Statue of Liberty upside down, with her head submerged These days, that might be a more accurate welcome sign.
John McCain Interview
Bill Moyers’ Investigation
Award-winning blogger and Michigan University professor Juan Cole
Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths
Article originally posted on the VM Blog.
Ian August reads a lot of news and likes to share it with people. He pretty much knows everything about everything, and if he doesn’t, he will pretend like he does and hope no one catches on too quickly. He enjoys exercise, comedy, and food. His inspirations are leaders in any area of life and Stephen Colbert. If you find yourself being picked on by Ian in a funny way, one reason might be that your views are too rigid and stiff…so relax. You can find more of his writing at nationsofrumi.blogspot.com. He is also on MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.
Disclaimer: The views in Op-Ed/Editorial pieces are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Vigilant Monkey or its editors.