America claims to be fighting for democracy and freedom worldwide. Yet we condone torture and refuse to comply with the UN.
From BBC news: [1]
A U.N. panel said Friday the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo violates the world's ban on torture. In issuing its report, the Committee Against Torture said the United States should ensure that no prisoner is tortured.
Why did we invade Iraq? Well, among the many reasons we gave in our desperate attempt to jutstify an illegal invasion was that Hussein committed torture and that he violated basic human rights and UN resolutions.
And now we, the United States, are justifying torture, violating basic human rights and violating UN resolutions.
The article goes on to report how Condaleezza Rice and John McCain see Guantanamo's detention camp a dilemma for the United States. A dilemma? A camp where we detain hundreds of people from around the world illegally (according to the United Nations) under conditions considered by international law as torture, with no legal due process whatsoever is a dilemma for the United States?
The entire world now views us with a mix of disgust and distrust because our hypocrisy has grown to epic proportions. We invade Iraq because we accused Hussein of doing some of the exact same things we now justify. Our invasion of Iraq had no more legal basis (though perhaps marginally more of a moral basis) than Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Our use of torture within Iraq and in Guantanamo is not only immoral but violates some of the same UN resolutions we used to justify our invasion of Iraq. And, by invading Iraq and threatening other nations contrary to the wishes of the interational community, we become at least as much of a threat to global stability as we claimed Iraq was. We threaten the use of WMD. We use torture. We invade nations illegally.
Had we stuck with the war against al-Qaeda the way Democrats wanted (Hell the way Clinton wanted BEFORE 9/11!) the world would still be behind us, the world would be safer and America would have no dilemma as to whether we should violate international bans against torturwe or not.
Sometimes it amazes me how low Bush has brought us. We have fallen so low, become so immoral, that we see torture as a difficult "dilemma."
Dilemma my ass! For Republicans, maybe. But for moral Americans there is no dilemma.
I don't see it as a dilemma. I see it as a disgrace. Stop the damned torture RIGHT NOW. Process the prisoners at Guantanamo through the tried and true international legal proceedings that are already in place for such situations. And stop involving America in immoral, illegal actions. THAT is what we should be doing. We should never, NEVER condone torture and detention without due process that conforms to international standards. Then there would BE no dilemma.
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