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Prisoner torture - not an aberration but what we've become
(Bob Smith, No Force, No Fraud, 13 May 2004)
As you may have noticed, No Force, No Fraud is about opposing the use of force as a means to achieve results of any kind. I've approached that from many angles, attempting to demonstrate that force will always create move bad results than good. That IS the important lesson that libertarianism has for all of us... that force, OF ANY KIND, will result in increased force, escalating force, retaliatory force, and truly ugly forms of force. The U.S. acceptance of force as a tool of effecting change has led us into a morass of almost unthinkable depravity now... the use of torture, physical, psychological, and even sexual torture, as a means of achieving results. While we all protest such actions, there is one segment of America who will protest the loudest and righteously proclaim themselves as "above the morass"... the American do-gooders. By "do-gooders", I mean those who believe that government programs can improve our society... who believe that legislation is the appropriate way to effect change... and who are continually pushing for larger and more powerful government. We've known for a long time that our Guantanamo prison was probably much like what we now can no longer ignore at Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi facilities. We've known that torture and abuse exist in our own civilian prisons. What is the difference? That we can no longer turn our heads and deny? That we can now see it rather than picture it in our minds? Or, is it that it was acceptable until we got caught? There is no doubt that our leaders knew and sanctioned such torture and abuse, and didn't respond to humanitarian reports of it occurring. It wasn't news to them. Despite their use now of "plausible deniability", blaming it on a "few bad apples", and then blaming it on a few civilian contractors, and now blaming it on the military, there must be no escaping that the responsibility goes all the way up to the Presidency and to the Congress that approved and urged him on. We are not an evil people, but the government we elect to represent us damned sure is evil, and corrupt, and that government has been smearing the reputation of Americans for many decades. For perhaps the first time in history, most of the world views us as the "bad guys". We have become what the German people were while Hitler was in power... protesting that the results are not our fault. So, America... will you just continue with your home-improvement projects, and bigger SUV's, and celebrating holidays, taking vacations, planning for college, and getting fatter eating out? Will you continue busying yourselves while those we elected demolish our freedoms and make the world hate us? Is it possible that you might find a bit of spare time to reflect on this mess, or will you, like the Germans of 60 years ago, just wait until it is far too late and then make excuses about not realizing?

****** Very thought provoking commentary. ********

posted by A Curmudgeon 8:25 PM