I wonder if the people living in those fascist countries during WWII knew when they had crossed the line. I mean was there a single moment in time that crystallized in their minds, that oh boy we have reached a new level. I wonder if the lines had become so blurred that they could not distinguish when they had crossed the line. As history has shown, once that line was crossed there was no turning back, anything was possible. Well, for those who don’t know or are too blurred eye to notice, we have crossed a dangerous line. The Bush Administration has badgered, lied, and coerced the American public and lawmakers to turn a blind eye to torture. Make no mistake about it, we are torturing people.
President Bush today delivered a stern defense of the nation’s detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects, saying that lives have been saved by the aggressive questioning of suspects and that any interrogation tactics have been in compliance with the country’s “international obligations” and been fully disclosed to “appropriate members” of Congress.
Faced with a backlash over a secret Justice Department memo that some lawmakers say authorized the use of torture, Bush said in a brief statement today that Americans expected the administration to protect them from future terrorist attacks. Washington Post
Using the justification that we are saving lives, this President has placed us on a kamikaze flight that will only end in our self-destruction. The destruction won’t come from some unnamed faceless terrorists, but from the cancer that has been created from within. Fear has replaced rational thinking and so everyone has turned a blind eye to the ugliness that the war on terror has become.
“I have put this program in place for a reason, that is to better protect the American people,” Bush said. “There are highly trained professionals questioning these extremists and terrorists. We have professionals who are trained in this kind of work that are going to get the information to protect the American people.”Washington Post
The President is not being truthful when he makes this statement because we had no professionals trained in torture techniques, remember we didn’t do torture until the President authorized it. We had to contact our more nefarious allies to get some torture tips and instructional videos. And once again he is hiding behind the disingenuous lie that torture saves lives. How long are we going to live under the threat and the fears of 9/11, yes Americans were killed but not to the level that we have to accept these measures quietly. The death of 2,000 Americans means we have to give up our rights and our freedoms, that we now condone torture? I don’t think so, the death toll would have to be a lot higher for me to surrender these quietly.
With virtually no experience in interrogations, the C.I.A. had constructed its program in a few harried months by consulting Egyptian and Saudi intelligence officials and copying Soviet interrogation methods long used in training American servicemen to withstand capture. The agency officers questioning prisoners constantly sought advice from lawyers thousands of miles away.
“We were getting asked about combinations — `Can we do this and this at the same time?'” recalled Paul C. Kelbaugh, a veteran intelligence lawyer who was deputy legal counsel at the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorist Center from 2001 to 2003. NY Times
If we allow this to continue in our name, then we are no better than those we prosecuted after WWII. They also claimed to just be following orders. We have crossed the line of morality and just because they parade out “Christian leaders” who condone it doesn’t make it right. Remember the Nazis had religious people excusing their behavior as well; they were good Christian folk who allowed the destruction of millions. There will always be those who will misquote scripture to condone their own agendas in the name of God. God does not condone torture of any human no matter what their race, culture, or religion. It amazes me how silent the voices of God’s ambassadors are as America continues its rapid descent into the abyss. They meet in Salt Lake City to discuss abortion, but can’t spare a moment to discuss the torture of God’s creation and their brothers.
The destruction that resulted in the Holocaust wasn’t started all at once, I’m sure there was a gradual progression from a little “enhanced interrogation” to “holocaust”. Once we accept torture as an acceptable treatment of our fellow human beings what is there to stop of us from committing more heinous acts. Where will it end, after we have destroyed a million Arab heathens (terrorists) for the sake of democracy? Oh and by the way they won’t be needing this oil they so generously left us.
I’m sorry, but just taking the word of George W. Bush is not enough for me. If he says we are not torturing people, this will ease the consciences of some enough to sleep at night, I on the other hand am not so trusting of a man who deliberately lied to invade a country so he and some of his Neo-Con friends could experiment with their empire building ideas. Well, if the President said it; I’m sure there were those in Germany who said the same thing. No my friends we have to let this President and any future President know that we will not stand for torture of any humans, not because it does or doesn’t work but because it is wrong, immoral, and inhumane. We raise a giant fuss about Michael Vick and his dogs, yet allow people to be tortured by our government and let out not a yelp. I’m sure those dogs went down with more bark and bite then we are. We all should feel a little bit ashamed by all of this, I know I do.
Many of us believe that wrongs aren’t wrong if it’s done by nice people like ourselves. – Author Unknown