Reply #35: Wonderful for John Cusack to do - admire him . . . [View All]

I'm feeling newly sickened by what Obama has done to withhold this evidence of gross

and inhuman torture -- towards children!!

When known fascists are murdering, torturing and covering up, it's one thing --

When the president we've elected to set the world aright again is helping the
cover up by withholding information, it's a different kind of betrayal - but it's still
betrayal.

Besides all this, Obama has to speak out clearly and loudly to the soldiers to tell them
there is to be no more torture ever again. To tell them how he will protect them from
such orders -- to tell them to feel secure to come forward with information -- to tell
them that he is at the same time speaking to military leadership and intelligence services
to make it completely and unquestionably clear that every soldier must be educated as to
Constitution's "no cruel or unusual punishment," as to Military law against torture,
the Geneva Accords -- and to the wisdom that torture is not to be permitted at any time
at any level, against anyone.
And, PS . . . it doesn't work, even if it weren't illegal.
Our courts also bar evidence gained by torture.

There should also be an apology to the world for our behavior --
and apology to all those tortured and to their families.

Saddam paid $350 billion for his offenses in Kuwait?

If anyone could set a price on what we have done over the last six year -- morally,
financially -- I feel there is no way we could ever make amends.

Nonetheless, I hope those who agree that we need prosecutions and all evidence released
will keep pounding on the president and Democrats.

The ACLU lucidly replies:


"It is true that these photos would be disturbing; the day we are no longer disturbed by such repugnant acts would be a sad one. In America, every fact and document gets known -- whether now or years from now. And when these photos do see the light of day, the outrage will focus not only on the commission of torture by the Bush administration but on the Obama administration's complicity in covering them up. Any outrage related to these photos should be due not to their release but to the very crimes depicted in them."


Maybe, Mr. President, you've succumbed to all the fear-mongering that the Bush administration and Republican Party sold for so long. Most Democrats have been silent enablers so consistently -- maybe we've all bought into it. We know the truth but we still can't admit it; just as for years signs and traces of torture performed in our name were there, we saw without seeing, and knew without knowing. When those first photos from Abu Ghraib were broadcast around the world five years ago, we told ourselves the sadism was the work of just a few maniacs. When we heard the privatization frenzy that spread like a cancer through the Bush years extended even to interrogation -- effectively making torture its own nightmarish "cottage industry" -- we looked away. And now our first official response is to let it all slide... and just move on.