I was interested – but (sadly) not very surprised – to see that some Republicans are screaming about “policy differences” being the reason that the current Obama administration is “possibly” (I’ll believe it when I see it) considering prosecution for officials responsible for the “harmless” interrogation policies (aka torture) developed by Bush and Cheney and co.
Policy differences? Umm… no. It’s called torture. And for any country to try and pretend it’s the “moral” leader of the world, or champions “freedom” whilst at the same time systematically torturing suspects is hypocritical at very best.
By the way, note I said suspects. They have not been convicted of anything. But they have been denied legal council etc. etc. and all the other shit that goes with illegal imprisonment – not to mention kidnapping, which is how many of them ended up in that place to be proud of – Guantanamo.
Wake up America. What an administration does it does in your name. Your reputation is at an all time low around the world.
Are Americans so hypocritical as to think that executing WWII Japanese soldiers for the (very same) war crime of waterboarding was justified, but it’s “ok” when America does it? They were EXECUTED. For war crimes. Republicans don’t want any American to even get a slap on the wrist.
If it were Americans who were being waterboarded you’d be screaming for blood. Double standards America.
And by the way. The end does not justify the means.
Look Mr. Admin, it’s not torture ok. We don’t call it torture. We didn’t torture. It’s logic see. Geez where have you been hiding your head?
Don’t you know that word meanings, in a perfectly accepted and politically expedient…umm, I mean politically correct sense, are moving targets like a rabbit at a dog track, to be chased but never caught and that this is beauty?
I mean, holy mother of bards, lawyers are paid zillions to help us understand what words REALLY mean to us.
I think, no matter what they are paid, these servants for public opinion, (I mean of course, public enlightenment), are severely under appreciated. When are we going to wake up and realize this and the true usefulness of those who help us understand?
I know the world economy (thanks to US greed) is now located somewhere in the toilet and hence people have a lot on their minds, but you’d think there’d be some voices raised in protest at this and not the deafening silence I’m hearing instead.
And what’s really sad is that despite all the self-righteous posturing by the current administration all those involved look like they’re going to get away with it.
I think we’re going to have to realize again that there is more to life than the material wealth idea that has been crammed down our throats in America.
It’s a personal opinion of course but I really don’t think most American have much of a sense of empathy or compassion for others, that having been dulled in us by “experts” telling us they’ll handle all the human interest stories and the atmosphere where people fear a lawsuit if you help someone fallen in the street.
Add the constant promotion of greed for power and material goods as a cultural value determining our perception of human worth.
Add the lack of a creative inner imagination which can come from exposure to fairy tales according to Einstein but which is not developed so much in school (which teaches children to vomit answers), is not developed by video games and god knows is not encouraged by cable TV.
…among other things. And IMHO you have a people that needs to feel pain themselves before most will be conscious of any inhumanity. And even then I wonder if many Americans would make the compassionate connection between them and any other human suffering.
Meanwhile let someone verbally slight a predefined politically sensitive group and wo be unto them and all of a sudden the mass mind attempts to rise to some sort of somnambulatory action.
The trouble is even when they start to feel pain themselves (and there’s 10,000,000+ newly unemployed out there who might just be feeling that) there’s still a long way to go. There’s a large number of Americans that don’t feel any compassion even for their fellow Americans, let alone anyone suffering elsewhere in the world. It’s an “I’m alright Jack” society which has been kept in the dark and fed bullshit (the myth of the American Dream) for decades.
Well…when some of the folk who supported and lauded these interrogations start being vocal about not liking their govt, and their new “Democratic” run govt, by the powers they thought their govt should have, exercises those powers against it’s former supporters, then it’ll be interesting what they have to say about things then.
Oh wait, they’ll have no voice, no lawyer, no family contact, and no recognition of being anything but suspected enemy combatants with the same “rights” as those held in Guantanamo Bay.