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StrangerThan -> RE: On torchure. Obama is WRONG (4/21/2009 2:16:54 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: rulemylife
The fact it was a caterpillar is irrelevant, he was told it was a stinging insect (of whatever type wasn't specified) and he had a severe phobia about that.
Now I think by any definition that falls under mental torture, which is prohibited by the Conventions.
Yes, there were legal loopholes the Bush administration used to justify this, and they may have been legally correct, though that is disputable.
My question is what does that say about what we have become as a country when we use legal maneuvering to justify something that has, in the past, been against every principle this country stood for.
So what legal loopholes is Obama using. We only have one form of illegal torture noted out of the list.
And yes, it does make a big difference what type of insect it was. Note insect, not insects, not a box full, not a cage about his head full of them, not a closed casket with him and them inside, but an insect, and about as harmless an insect as one could possibly find. I could go along with you if they'd filled one of those old time knight helmets with black widows or something and put it on his head, but a frickin caterpillar on a man who planned the deaths of 3000 people?
I have no sympathy for him, even though I can probably come closer to understanding why he did what he did than most. I have no outraged moments over a bug when he probably had worse crawling through his room at night. Though I'm sure he would have preferred the virgins and the everlasting glory, as far as I'm concerned he's lucky they didn't bathe him daily in hog blood.
What does it say about us as a nation? I used to argue that very same point. I also put myself in the same situation. Given people who had attacked my country, killed maybe my friends, my family, and would do so again in a heartbeat, would I go round feeling bad for sticking a caterpillar in his cell? Not in the fucking least. Outright killing him when he was disarmed, starving, beating, maiming, intentionally causing severe pain, yes.
I think a lot of people will argue this out of hatred for Bush and for no other reason. I despise the man as well, but you know, you can walk outside and have more bugs on you than was used in his alleged torture. I don't think the man lived inside a glass bubble and I see absolutely no reason to walk around everyone's little foibles in that situation.
There is a difference between torture and putting a bug in a man's cell. You do every vet of every country a disgrace by taking hatred of Bush to this extreme, and in particular, spit soundly upon those who actually were tortured.
Rest assured though. Worse is coming. It was those who were spirited off to other countries that no doubt suffered the most under the eye of our government.
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