The Beast, the fucking Beast
Dec. 9th, 2004 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forsythI don't know the words to express my horror, my anger, my shame, at what's happened to this country. I don't say things like this lightly, but our leaders are evil men. Evil in almost any sense you can think of saying. They authorized torture. They lied to us all and now my friends, your sons and daughters, your neighbors and co-workers, are the ones dying for their mismanaged lie.
They are evil not just for what they've done themselves, but what they've done to others, what they've helped make otherwise good people into. The guards at Abu Ghraib, who would have mostly lived out probably decent lives, are now all involved and complicit with torture. It wasn't a secret. They took photographs. They sent them home to family and friends, brought them back when they returned. Maybe these dark sides were already there, but would they have surfaced without the insane and impossible situation they were thrust into by Bush and Rumsfeld and the rest?
And the others, who rounded up prisoners based on "who looks suspicious" (when you're 19 and in a foreign country and worried somebody's going to shoot you, who doesn't look suspicious), and turned them over to Abu Ghraib? Most of the detainees were innocent of ANYTHING, and now they have to live with the fact that they turned innocent people over to be tortured.
And us, the rest of us, back home in America, we've become willfully ignorant dupes, sticking our fingers in our ears and humming happy holiday tunes while atrocities are committed in our names. We too share the guilt, for what our leaders do, they do in our name. And we, knowing this to be the case, voted for them anyway.
And the press, afraid to report, journalists unable to walk the streets in the center of Baghdad with bulletproof vests, unable to tell us anything other than what they're told. What is a press that won't tell us the truth, afraid to hold up the mirror to us all and show us our flaws along with our triumphs? Reduced to cheerleaders and arm-candy, a domestic propaganda machine to be twisted and keep us all afraid and ignorant.
I may seem to be obsessing about "that torture thing," but there's a very simple reason for it. There are lines that should not be crossed, and using torture is one of them. Torture violates EVERY SINGLE THING that makes America America. And we get NOTHING from it. Nothing. Torture makes us no more safe, provides us with no new information. A person being tortured will say anything they think you want, just to make you stop. Just ask the "witches" the Inquisition tortured confessions from. We gain nothing from torture, and lose everything by it. We lose our credibility, our moral standing, our ideals, our principles. We lose any chance to connect to moderates and other potential allies, who see us just as barbarians. We give the fanatics the greatest recruiting photos they could have imagined. We give all our enemies a new justification they can point at when they spew their hate and our allies another reason to think we're dangerously insane.
And now President Bush is appointing a new Attorney General. He's appointing a man who asked for and approved memos attempting to legalize and justify the use of torture. A man who referred to the Geneva Conventions as "quaint" and "outdated". A man who's other major legal opinions included claiming the President, in times of war, has the absolute right to do whatever he wants. A man who would approve memos that attempt to justify torture has no place in government at all, much less as Attorney General. A President with no limits on his power is a king. These are not America. Not the America I knew, not the America I care about. These people, who hide themselves under the faceless flag of "patriotism" are no patriots. They defile the Flag they wrap themselves in, stain it with their sins. They violate our country and when we let them, we share in their vices. For what they do, they do in our names.
How does it feel, America? How does the whip feel in your hand? Do you like the smell of blood and shit and piss? Enjoy the screams of agony and moans of humiliation? What do you think of the sight of naked hooded prisoners lined up against the cold concrete walls? Does the suffering of an Iraqi woman with her head held underwater until she sputters and starts to drown make you feel safer? Does the canned holiday music in the mall drown out the screams and tears of Iraqi children? Does your overstuffed pillow protect you from the evils being done in your name? Do you like the feel of the oppressor's boots? Enough room for your toes?
I hope you do, for your sakes. Because this is what we voted for, America. This is what we've become. And having gone this far, is there any way we can go back, and be what we once were?
They are evil not just for what they've done themselves, but what they've done to others, what they've helped make otherwise good people into. The guards at Abu Ghraib, who would have mostly lived out probably decent lives, are now all involved and complicit with torture. It wasn't a secret. They took photographs. They sent them home to family and friends, brought them back when they returned. Maybe these dark sides were already there, but would they have surfaced without the insane and impossible situation they were thrust into by Bush and Rumsfeld and the rest?
And the others, who rounded up prisoners based on "who looks suspicious" (when you're 19 and in a foreign country and worried somebody's going to shoot you, who doesn't look suspicious), and turned them over to Abu Ghraib? Most of the detainees were innocent of ANYTHING, and now they have to live with the fact that they turned innocent people over to be tortured.
And us, the rest of us, back home in America, we've become willfully ignorant dupes, sticking our fingers in our ears and humming happy holiday tunes while atrocities are committed in our names. We too share the guilt, for what our leaders do, they do in our name. And we, knowing this to be the case, voted for them anyway.
And the press, afraid to report, journalists unable to walk the streets in the center of Baghdad with bulletproof vests, unable to tell us anything other than what they're told. What is a press that won't tell us the truth, afraid to hold up the mirror to us all and show us our flaws along with our triumphs? Reduced to cheerleaders and arm-candy, a domestic propaganda machine to be twisted and keep us all afraid and ignorant.
I may seem to be obsessing about "that torture thing," but there's a very simple reason for it. There are lines that should not be crossed, and using torture is one of them. Torture violates EVERY SINGLE THING that makes America America. And we get NOTHING from it. Nothing. Torture makes us no more safe, provides us with no new information. A person being tortured will say anything they think you want, just to make you stop. Just ask the "witches" the Inquisition tortured confessions from. We gain nothing from torture, and lose everything by it. We lose our credibility, our moral standing, our ideals, our principles. We lose any chance to connect to moderates and other potential allies, who see us just as barbarians. We give the fanatics the greatest recruiting photos they could have imagined. We give all our enemies a new justification they can point at when they spew their hate and our allies another reason to think we're dangerously insane.
And now President Bush is appointing a new Attorney General. He's appointing a man who asked for and approved memos attempting to legalize and justify the use of torture. A man who referred to the Geneva Conventions as "quaint" and "outdated". A man who's other major legal opinions included claiming the President, in times of war, has the absolute right to do whatever he wants. A man who would approve memos that attempt to justify torture has no place in government at all, much less as Attorney General. A President with no limits on his power is a king. These are not America. Not the America I knew, not the America I care about. These people, who hide themselves under the faceless flag of "patriotism" are no patriots. They defile the Flag they wrap themselves in, stain it with their sins. They violate our country and when we let them, we share in their vices. For what they do, they do in our names.
How does it feel, America? How does the whip feel in your hand? Do you like the smell of blood and shit and piss? Enjoy the screams of agony and moans of humiliation? What do you think of the sight of naked hooded prisoners lined up against the cold concrete walls? Does the suffering of an Iraqi woman with her head held underwater until she sputters and starts to drown make you feel safer? Does the canned holiday music in the mall drown out the screams and tears of Iraqi children? Does your overstuffed pillow protect you from the evils being done in your name? Do you like the feel of the oppressor's boots? Enough room for your toes?
I hope you do, for your sakes. Because this is what we voted for, America. This is what we've become. And having gone this far, is there any way we can go back, and be what we once were?
