My Letter to My Senators This Morning
Dec. 3rd, 2004 05:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qosI sent this letter to both Senator Patty Murry and Senator Maria Cantwell this morning.
Sentaor:
I have just read with horror the AP article which states "Evidence gained by torture can be used by the U.S. military in deciding whether to imprison a foreigner indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant, the government concedes" -- and that "Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle has ruled that evidence gained by torture is admissable in the case of the detainees at Guantamo Base."
For an administration so keen on prayer and saying the Pledge of Allegiance, they sure seem to have forgotten basic human decency and "liberty and justice for all."
How has our country fallen so low? What the hell is this administration thinking? I'm not sure which appalls me more: the fact that our military is torturing illegally detained prisoners, or that this administration is so blind to decency and world opinion that it evidently doesn't feel any qualms about admitting it in public.
Senator, the war in Iraq is already a travesty. This is barbaric. and a violation of basic principles as a nation. Please do whatever you can to put an end to the abuses at Guantanamo.
Sentaor:
I have just read with horror the AP article which states "Evidence gained by torture can be used by the U.S. military in deciding whether to imprison a foreigner indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant, the government concedes" -- and that "Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle has ruled that evidence gained by torture is admissable in the case of the detainees at Guantamo Base."
For an administration so keen on prayer and saying the Pledge of Allegiance, they sure seem to have forgotten basic human decency and "liberty and justice for all."
How has our country fallen so low? What the hell is this administration thinking? I'm not sure which appalls me more: the fact that our military is torturing illegally detained prisoners, or that this administration is so blind to decency and world opinion that it evidently doesn't feel any qualms about admitting it in public.
Senator, the war in Iraq is already a travesty. This is barbaric. and a violation of basic principles as a nation. Please do whatever you can to put an end to the abuses at Guantanamo.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-03 12:00 pm (UTC)The problem is.....
Date: 2004-12-03 01:05 pm (UTC)And no easy answers are forthcoming.
War is barbaric. But it happens nonetheless.
But I wonder if the UN had enforced its will 12 years ago when Saddam first defied them, would things have been different.
Unfortunatly the UN has not had the best track record enforcing its authority. The sanctions scandal has made it even worse.
It was only a matter of time before the US began openly using the same tactics that other countries such as Israel have used for years. I'm not saying they haven't used such tactics in the past, but it's seems to me that someone read Machiavelli and started taking the "fear over love" principle to heart.
Now that terrorism has changed the concept of modern warfare for American society in general, how can American keep itself safe and also keep its hands clean of tactics that are considered "distasteful" in polite society?
If someone could make a proposal to the Senate that puts an alternative on the table, you might have some willing ears to hear you.
Just my two cents....
Re: The problem is.....
Date: 2004-12-03 08:18 pm (UTC)Indeed.
I have also been saying all along that the Powers-That-Be in our country have allowed fear and hatred to rule their hearts and minds, leading to some terrible decisions. We, as a nation, have allowed our fears to make us petty and tyrannical, even against our own people, much less our enemies -- and those who have the misfortune to be standing near them, or physically or culturally resembling them.
If someone could make a proposal to the Senate that puts an alternative on the table, you might have some willing ears to hear you.
I wish I had the wisdom to put forward a workable answer.
I wish anyone did.
Re: The problem is.....
Date: 2004-12-06 11:47 am (UTC)Like it or not this country has enemies that existed long before George Jr. came along.
A portion of them are in the Middle East.
Iraq invaded Kuwait without provocation.
Iraq defied UN sanctions for 12 years and were allowed to do so (because Iraq was paying them off).
Iraq did have a chemical warfare arsenal that they used during the Iran/Iraq war. Saddam just couldn't make a public disclosure that he'd dismantled it because he feared another Iranian invasion.
Lastly, Iraq did collect chemical weapon elements that were not on the UN sanctions list so that it could resume this program if the sanctions were ever lifted.
The US avoided two world wars until it was itself threatened (the Zimmerman Telegram and Pearl Harbor).
Then it came in and took care of what the other members of the world community could not handle. Including liberating the French.....twice.
For once the US took a preemptive action against an established enemy. Along with finding Abu Abbas and discovering the UN oil scam, there have been some abuses of Iraqi prisoners.
Horrifying indeed. And if those abuses were committed for no other reason then cruelty then punishment should be rendered.
Yet does this apply to those who hold information on the rooms where innocent, non-combantent men and women were executed and tortured by the insurgent terrorists. The same rooms in which beheadings and extortion occurred.
The Iraqi people don't even want the insurgents there. So if torture should not be used to find out information to put an end to the insurgent element, what might work better?
Because fanatics don't go away because you ask them nicely.
Just some food for thought.