“No longer is there any doubt; no longer can there be any denial. The U.S. government has tortured in our name. It has tortured detainees, in some cases scores, even hundreds, of times. Torture practices were not aberrations done by a few errant jailers. They were approved by top government officials and became an essential ingredient of U.S. policy in the fight against terrorism.” So reads the National Catholic Reporter.
The revelations about prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib shocked decent citizens both sides of the Atlantic. The pictures and videoing (now open to the world to see) show army personnel delighting in their degrading and dehumanised behaviour! America and Britain had gone to war with Iraq to depose their dictator whose regime had a history of cruel and sadistic treatment of its peoples. But is evil limited to any particular people? After the videos and photographs from Abu Ghraib the question for many is, what about what went on that was not photographed and videoed?
And now, what about American policy on torture and Guantánamo Bay? Is torture consistent with the Christian basis of the American Constitution? To take the last line on the last comment (at this point) on this link : “Christian values, Christian traditions, and Christian references were embedded in the founding of our government from the very beginning and continue to be.”
But now we have this embarrassing contradiction for American citizens, the fifth paragraph down on this link:
“Guantanamo is more than just a geographic location, it is a state of mind; one where we tell the world that we’re not going to abide by the principles we preach; one where we state manifestly, that our system is shallow, corrupt and imperial.”
Guantanamo Bay detention Camp: after Abu Ghraib who can know what cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of imprisoned suspects takes place behind doors closed to the rest of the world? It was a concern for Sen. John McCain who had himself been subject to torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
In its use of human torture America has lost its high moral ground in the eyes of the world! Reporting on this human abuse the National Catholic Reporter calls it “a wake up moment.”
