Rumsfeld is Sued for Abuse
3/02/2005
ACLU and Human Rights First are suing Donald Rumsfeld for overlooking, and thereby being responsible for, the torture of prisoners under US custody. I hope they get every penny he's got. And get the rest of the ignorant bastards who caused this mess.
The US long ago ratified the UN Convention Against Torture. Even without the Geneva Conventions, this treaty in effect makes it illegal for anybody to torture a human being anywhere for any reason, regardless of their military status or otherwise.
We have violated this treaty many, many times, and we look away, turning our heads from the shame that we let happen. The 'leaders' of this Country have eroded the human experience by ignoring hundreds of years of human evolution in favor of pushing Manifest Destiny across the globe. And they wonder why progressive thinkers are so furious. Our President and his cronies are bloodthirsty, opportunistic barbarians.
I urge all my readers to pick up Guantanamo: What the World Should Know, from Chelsea Green publishing. If you aren't outraged by now, you aren't paying attention, and this book will give you the heads up on just some of the shameful activities our military is conducting offshore. This issue is simply too serious, too grave, to be ignored and left for more outspoken people to handle.
The thing that disturbed me the most about prisoners being shipped to Guantanamo: They were shipped in large metal containers, each carrying dozens of prisoners who had not been tried, represented, or anything. Just thrown into a big box. And US soldiers stood by and let this happen, and Iraqi guards at times literally shot holes in these containers, killing prisoners inside.
Guantanamo reflects in some ways the horrors of Nazi concentration camps. Haliburton even built a 'death house' there, according to this book. If prisoners didn't survive the journey to the concentration camp, it is a living hell for them at Guantanamo. Something must be done to expose this problem for what it is. Guantanamo is an outrage. It is the beginning of a new kind of hatred of the US, and it must be stopped.
I love my country. I want our leaders and our military to respect what America stands for. I don't want them to continue to redefine America as an Empire, a totalitarian, oppressive regime. Because that's not what we are.
posted by Edward Svengali @ Wednesday, March 02, 2005,
