LUCILLE: George W Bush has approved this message of Torture

This is absolutely incredible to me. George Bush's top advisors - Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney,  Condi Rice - not only approved torture but choreographed exactly what could be done to whom, how often. They decided who should be physically hurt, who should be waterboarded, who should be attacked by trained dogs.

But that's not the worst.

George Bush told ABC News that he personally approved of the approval of torture by his top advisers. Our President personally approved torture. Have you heard about it in the news? Only if you're watching  The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or Countdown. No front page stories. No replaying the news clip, over and over on Fox News. Not a peep from most of the media.

Well, it makes me sick. And maybe these pictures will make you sick, too. Now that we know - because he admitted it himself - that torture in Iraq wasn't the work of a "few rogue soldiers" but approved and choreographed by the sickos inhabiting the White House - I want you to look at these pictures - a chronology of one night of torture in Iraq approved by George W Bush - and tell me that this is your America.  

Abu Ghraib prison, Baghdad Iraq
December 12, 2003 10:47:25 PM





December 12, 2003 10:47:30 PM




WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PICTURES ARE GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING



 

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Comments

[Eric]

And really, did anyone actually think that this "few bad apples" explanation was anything more than a lie? This is just another reason why these bastards need to be in prison for war crimes.

Lucille, you'd be hard pressed to get any sympathy from the right wing on this issue. With their "guilty until proven innocent" attitude, everyone in guantanamo is less than human to them. So in their eyes, anything you do to a "terrorist" is fine with them.

Me on the other hand. I actually believe in the Constitution. Its principles legally apply to American citizens, but they're also a philosophy. ALL MEN are created equal, and ALL MEN have the right to due process. This idea that because someone is believed to be a terrorist that they can be treated this way is absolutely an affront to the Constitution and everything that America is supposed to stand for.

Fear turns into hatred and hatred turns a man into a monster.

You can always judge a country by how they treat their prisoners in wartime. In the Revolutionary War, the British horribly tortured the American revolutionaries, but George Washington issued an order that all British POWs must be treated humanely because he knew that is what set us apart from them. We have lost that part of our humanity as a country, and we can never criticize another country (like China) for human rights abuses. It is very sad.

And what good does torture get us? It creates terrorists, and it can never glean any useful intelligence. Ask any professional interrogator and they will tell you that confessions under torture are worthless. People will say anything to stop the pain. And when you have an enemy soldier that has the choice of fighting and dying or surrendering and being tortured, you will always see him fight harder. In Gulf War 1, so many Iraqis surrendered because they knew they would be treated humanely. Torture policies put the lives of our soldiers at stake and makes it more likely that they will be tortured when captured.

Torture is simply indefensible, and this Jack Bauer argument is absolute bullshit. It never happens.