In talking about the Holocaust, I have heard many people in this country ask, "How could the German people not know what was happening in their own country? And how could they ignore it when they did know? Doesn't that mean they agree with what was going on in their hearts?" Some scary stuff is coming out of Washington this week that, combined with what we already know, shows just how a Republican Washington values the inalienable rights and freedoms it claims to love so much and how willing the American public is to turn a blind eye to things it doesn't want to see or acknowledge.
We, the American public, already know how the Bush Administration was more than willing to trample on and censor our rights to a speedy and fair trial and privacy, and the basic legal premise of innocent until proven guilty with the Patriot Act (the name is such a classic piece of propaganda spin, almost as good as "freedom fries".
By valuing the rights that are contained in our Constitution, you are not a patriot...
) The same Administration that had no issue with going in and telling countries such as China and Afghanistan what kind of government they should have and how that government should be treating its citizens and prisoners was not only disregarding some of the fundamental rights this country was built on, but was engaging in forms of torture against foreign detainees that it knew were illegal under treaties the US had already signed and that robbed detainees of their basic human dignities and rights.
It used legal mumbo jumbo to justify most of it, but even acknowledged that waterboarding was illegal until it did about a year's extra work to try to explain the illegality of that practice away too.
Representatives of the same party that bashed Clinton for hiding behind legal jargon and technicalities to hide the fact that he received oral sex from a woman ("I did not have sex with that woman.
", because it was not penile/vaginal sex and therefore not really sex) is using legal jargon and technicalities to justify taking a human being and placing him in a situation that simulates drowning and doing it for 183 times in one month in order to get information.
This is just one of many practices and the worst that we know about.
They knew it was wrong, just as anyone with a degree of common sense knows that it's wrong; the fact that semantics and jargon make it "legal" does not make it right.
After all, the Nazis "legally" classified Jews as less than human, white slave owners and the American government "legally" classified slaves as less than human, but that did not change the fact that the Jews and slaves were any less than human beings with basic rights.
That the actions being taken against them were wrong and an affront to the concept of human dignity- the very concepts that underpins and justifies the primacy of the rights recognized and protected by our Constitution- is clear and not excuseable.
We now know what our country has done, even if we don't know all of it.
There are still a lot of secrets and I'm sure we'll never know the full extent of what was done to detainees in the name of national security.
We cry out when we see Americans being tortured by foreigners and terrorists, pointing out that what they are doing to our men and women is inhuman and wrong.
Why is it any less wrong when we are doing it? And by doing it too, aren't we telling them that it is okay? If we legitimize the actions for ourselves, we legitimize them for everyone else too.
We permit all to "take the gloves off" and do whatever is necessary to further their aims.
We lose the right to say, "Enough! You don't have the right to do this!", to other peoples and governments because we have no moral standard that allow us to.
Far more troubling to me is the lack of the American people's outrage to all that is being disclosed.
I don't see or hear the general really talking about it, being upset, or engaging in mass protest.
Our moral standing and good name in the world has been dragged through the mud and severely compromised, but the bulk of the American public has done NOTHING.
Our inaction has told those at fault that if they give us the right spin, the right propaganda, that we will justify anything and hide our heads in the sand too.
We will hide the ugly truth from ourselves just like the German people did in World War II.
Imagine our grandchildren standing at an exhibit describing what our country has done to detainees, asking the same questions about us that we ask about the German people of World War II and the Holocaust.
It's not a far stretch if we, the American public, do not stand up and denounce the actions of the Bush Administration in regard to torture and the squelching of the rights of the American public and the basic human rights of foreign detainees.
Laura Bramble www.
politicalsimpleton.
com
We, the American public, already know how the Bush Administration was more than willing to trample on and censor our rights to a speedy and fair trial and privacy, and the basic legal premise of innocent until proven guilty with the Patriot Act (the name is such a classic piece of propaganda spin, almost as good as "freedom fries".
By valuing the rights that are contained in our Constitution, you are not a patriot...
) The same Administration that had no issue with going in and telling countries such as China and Afghanistan what kind of government they should have and how that government should be treating its citizens and prisoners was not only disregarding some of the fundamental rights this country was built on, but was engaging in forms of torture against foreign detainees that it knew were illegal under treaties the US had already signed and that robbed detainees of their basic human dignities and rights.
It used legal mumbo jumbo to justify most of it, but even acknowledged that waterboarding was illegal until it did about a year's extra work to try to explain the illegality of that practice away too.
Representatives of the same party that bashed Clinton for hiding behind legal jargon and technicalities to hide the fact that he received oral sex from a woman ("I did not have sex with that woman.
", because it was not penile/vaginal sex and therefore not really sex) is using legal jargon and technicalities to justify taking a human being and placing him in a situation that simulates drowning and doing it for 183 times in one month in order to get information.
This is just one of many practices and the worst that we know about.
They knew it was wrong, just as anyone with a degree of common sense knows that it's wrong; the fact that semantics and jargon make it "legal" does not make it right.
After all, the Nazis "legally" classified Jews as less than human, white slave owners and the American government "legally" classified slaves as less than human, but that did not change the fact that the Jews and slaves were any less than human beings with basic rights.
That the actions being taken against them were wrong and an affront to the concept of human dignity- the very concepts that underpins and justifies the primacy of the rights recognized and protected by our Constitution- is clear and not excuseable.
We now know what our country has done, even if we don't know all of it.
There are still a lot of secrets and I'm sure we'll never know the full extent of what was done to detainees in the name of national security.
We cry out when we see Americans being tortured by foreigners and terrorists, pointing out that what they are doing to our men and women is inhuman and wrong.
Why is it any less wrong when we are doing it? And by doing it too, aren't we telling them that it is okay? If we legitimize the actions for ourselves, we legitimize them for everyone else too.
We permit all to "take the gloves off" and do whatever is necessary to further their aims.
We lose the right to say, "Enough! You don't have the right to do this!", to other peoples and governments because we have no moral standard that allow us to.
Far more troubling to me is the lack of the American people's outrage to all that is being disclosed.
I don't see or hear the general really talking about it, being upset, or engaging in mass protest.
Our moral standing and good name in the world has been dragged through the mud and severely compromised, but the bulk of the American public has done NOTHING.
Our inaction has told those at fault that if they give us the right spin, the right propaganda, that we will justify anything and hide our heads in the sand too.
We will hide the ugly truth from ourselves just like the German people did in World War II.
Imagine our grandchildren standing at an exhibit describing what our country has done to detainees, asking the same questions about us that we ask about the German people of World War II and the Holocaust.
It's not a far stretch if we, the American public, do not stand up and denounce the actions of the Bush Administration in regard to torture and the squelching of the rights of the American public and the basic human rights of foreign detainees.
Laura Bramble www.
politicalsimpleton.
com
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