The United States’ Deliberate Use of Torture

The Washington Post has a major article today on an Iraqi General who was tortured to death. If anyone needed more proof that torture was an accepted—and indeed encouraged--form of interrogation under the Bush administration, here it is. If this isn’t enough proof, what is?

Generals are clearly subject to the Geneva Convention. Generals don’t “fall through the cracks” and then get beat up by accident by out of control guards. While he might have had information that would have helped locate some resistance units, this was no “ticking bomb case. “ Instead this was standard operating procedure.

Indeed, it is clear from the investigation that followed that the only “mistake” the interrogators made was in killing the guy as opposed to keeping him alive to torture some more. Only his death warranted further investigation. One can only assume that any success in obtaining “cooperation” would have been rewarded.

There was a system in place that did this. Our political and military leaders ordered the creation of this system. We the taxpayers paid for it. There is no reason to assume that this is not still going on and that we are not still paying for such actions.

To the extent that a US citizen knows this and does not try to stop it, he or she is an accomplice to it. There is blood on millions of hands. Our hands.