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Current mood:  happy Category: News and Politics
Lately, I have been working with my dad in lieu of a real job (not to say it isn't hard work- its just weird to be employed by your father). He loves talk radio. Conservative talk radio. So, suffice to say, I've heard a LOT of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Schnitt over the last couple of weeks.A topic that seems to come up continuously on these programs is torture. Namely, the torture of detainees in Gitmo (the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where suspected terrorists are being held). Now, being a program run by (possibly radical) right-wing conservatives, any objection to torture is shot down by "You're unAmerican!" or "Crazy liberal!". My issue doesn't so much lie with the provincial pundits, but with the callers to these shows.There are a huge number of callers claiming that America should "kill the bastards", or that they "deserve it". Some even go so far as to say "We're being too nice to them". The sheer barbarism and apparent bloodlust of these people is appalling. America was started by a band of rebels who drafted the United States Declaration of Independence. The opening line of said document contained the immortalized phrase:"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator certain unalienable rights..."
This philosophy doesn't seem to ring true in America today. It is the only country to legalize and endorse torture. Rush Limbaugh stated on his program (verbatum) "Whats the big deal with torture? So we stick a water hose in these guy's noses! So what?!". Limbaugh is referencing waterboarding. This act, which is "no big deal" is described by Wikipedia (the omniscient encyclopedia of errthang) as follows (I encourage you to research what it highlighted):[Waterboarding is a form of torture consisting of immobilizing the victim on his or her back with the head inclined downwards, and then pouring water over the face and into the
breathing passages. By forced suffocation and inhalation of water the subject experiences drowning and is caused to believe they are about to die. It is considered a form of torture by legal experts, politicians, war veterans, intelligence officials, military judges,and human rights organizations. As early as the Spanish Inquisition it was used for interrogation purposes, to punish and intimidate, and to force confessions.
In contrast to submerging the head face-forward in water, waterboarding precipitates a gag reflex almost immediately. The technique does not inevitably or in all cases cause lasting physical damage. It can cause extreme pain, dry drowning, damage to lungs, brain damageoxygen deprivation, other physical injuries including broken bones due to struggling against restraints, lasting psychological damage or, ultimately, death. Adverse physical consequences can start manifesting months after the event; psychological effects can last for years.] from
Now, please don't get me wrong. I fully support the government giving these detainees a trial, and sentencing them (if need be). Even if that sentence is death. There are crimes that are heinous enough to warrant death, and the attacks on our coutnry easily fall into that category.But the United States cannot parade itself around with a tongue that speaks comforting words of "justice and liberty" and in the same sentence spits curses of "torture and hate".
4:37 AM
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