Torture

Today's one of those days when I understand people who take advantage of every opportunity to deride President Bush and his administration. I'm not a Bush fan, but I'm also not a fan of fighting fire with fire or strict party loyalty, thus I tend to maintain (I hope) a respectful tone. But further confirmation that our stupid government did in fact use waterboarding on prisoners (after saying they had not) has upset me--and driven me to call our elected government "stupid". Clearly I am worked up. :)

It's not the news leaking out that upsets me; there have been plenty of previous stories on the subject, though not all were widely shared or lent credibility. What upsets me most are that we the United States of America (a) knowingly and willingly tortured people in our custody, and (b) reneged on the Third Geneva Convention (read text here), an honorable and important international agreement, thus contributing to our declining world image. This is an upset which has been burbling for a while. Argh!

Here are a few articles on Bush administration's history of alternately protecting and denying our use of torture, including water boarding:
* Human Rights Watch called on Bush to account for possibly ordering torture, Dec 2004.
* Bush could bypass new torture ban - Boston Globe, Jan 2006.
* Top US official denies 'torture' - BBC News, March 2006
* White House denies Cheney endorsed 'water boarding' - USA Today, Oct 2006

And a few comments on Bush Administration's discussion of torture:
* Eugene Robinson vented his frustrations over Bush's refusal to reject the use of torture in September 2006, in the Washington Post.
* Tom Engelhardt of The Nation blogged in Sept 2006 about how the media and Bush administration obfuscate (my assertion) torture through manipulation of language.

[T]he general rule of thumb of the mainstream media...refers to such "techniques" as "abuse" or "abusive practices" but not usually as "torture." This, it seems to me, is a media "technique" that just might be worth correcting. Torture is regularly named as such only when the President denies that we do it or that he ordered it....

I won't go beyond calling our present government stupid because it is election day, the time for us to exercise the privilege of voting. (You may be surprised to discover voting is not a right granted by the Constitution). We have a civic responsibility to take charge of the direction we want to see our government headed in. The fewer people get involved, the more those who are involved can yield power. I leave you with a few cynical tidbits to contemplate on this Super Tuesday.

What luck for the rulers that [people] do not think.

The victor will not be asked afterwards, whether he told the truth or not.

No amount of genius spent on the creation of propaganda will lead to success if a fundamental principle is not forever kept in mind. Propaganda must confine itself to very few points, and repeat them endlessly. Here, as with so many things in this world, persistence is the first and foremost condition of success.

All of the above are Hitler quotes, by the way. It's time to think and VOTE.