Politics: Politics of War And Torture Of Terrorists: Now The U.S. Has a Policy of Torture

A policy of torture is a policy of domination by the sword and fear of the sword. Ghengis Khan and the Mongol Hordes practiced such a policy, raising everything in their path down to the ground. The Mongols hamstrung prisoners, raped the women and murdered the children. Slobavan Milosivic used torture with no more forethought than lighting a cigarette. Stalin through Gorbachev used torture in the infamous Soviet Union prisons. The Nazis used torture and were said to have prided themselves as strong men who could mindlessly do their work as torture machines. The Chinese, of course, use torture as an ongoing policy.

Currently, the US is criticizing the Chinese for human rights violations. Knowing full well what we are doing, this is something of a joke. The joke is on us. Until now, even our enemies had a certain respect for us. In this regard, we are losing the greater war as a nation among nations. We are hated, we are feared and we are known as hypocrites. One can almost hear the cynical laughter. Speeches about bringing democracy are laughed at around the world and here at home. Who believes that those who torture have democratic intentions ? It is shameful. Yet, our president calls himself a "compassionate Christian," putting a black mark on Christianity, itself. Across the globe, people are saying, "How can the US president call Saddam, Usama, or Kim Jung Il evil, how can he call Ahmadinejad evil ? Look at what he does. Why do the Americans support this ?"

England, which has never in modern times employed torture to break some of the world's most important spies, now stoops to embrace torture. They will be as hated as we are.

Sinking to the level of the enemy, how can we speak about integrity and humane principles and democratic freedoms ? What we do is who we are. All the propaganda artists in the world cannot spin this away. We are a nation fallen to embracing...as policy, torture of other human-beings. How long until we loathe ourselves, not just our leaders ? What are we to say, we torture, but not as terribly as Saddam or Stalin or Hitler ? Are we to say our torture is just, theirs is not ? Are we to say, we don't torture for tyranny, but for democracy ? What does it mean to be a civilized people ?

• Is The U.S. Torturing Prisoners?
• What Constitutes Torture When You Are Dealing With A Terrorist?
• More Important Than Torture Is If We Are Getting Good Information From Terrorists