We Are America: The Torture Nation

Bush, Cheney and Company are betting the farm, they are outright daring you, the American citizen to do anything about the fact that they committed war crimes and authorized torture.

The sad thing is, after the last 8 years, I have no reason to believe that “we the people” will do a thing to prove them wrong. Consider the embarrassment and shame brought about by the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II. If we still have a country recognizable as America in 10 to 20 years (which is in some doubt from my perspective), how much deeper our shame, our guilt, our humiliation?

We are the people who stand by and do nothing while torture, war, and war crimes are carried out in our name. We are the Germans who stood by and did nothing as Hitler and Nazi fascism turned their society upside down and exterminated “undesirables”.

We are America, the torture nation.

From the Los Angeles Times – “Cheney Was Key in Clearing CIA Interrogation Tactics:

Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he was directly involved in approving severe interrogation methods used by the CIA, and that the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should remain open indefinitely.

Cheney’s remarks on Guantanamo appear to put him at odds with President Bush, who has expressed a desire to close the prison, although the decision is expected to be left to the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

Cheney’s comments also mark the first time that he has acknowledged playing a central role in clearing the CIA’s use of an array of controversial interrogation tactics, including a simulated drowning method known as waterboarding.

It’s also worth noting that Cheney is claiming the CIA came to him saying what they wanted to do, when history and evidence have made it very clear at this point that the policy came from the top-down.