Reading Harper's Monthly on my way to Omaha this week I came across an article on U.S. War crimes--particularly as they deal with torture. The Amnesty International Magazine this month also takes a look at the issue of torture in an article that talks about a trial for Donald Rumsfeld. I thought it might be worth at least putting this out there for reflection. I realize this may well stir up some controversy, but as a nation that seeks to be one that is just, we need to ask hard questions of ourselves. The Atlantic Monthly has also just come out with an article. In it you can find a link to the McCain-Levin (U.S. Senate) summary on how prisoners were treated.
Here's a paragraph from the online Harper's article.
War Crimes
By Scott Horton
How often in our nation’s history has a Congressional Committee published a report which concludes that the President is essentially guilty of war crimes? Only once. It happened last week with the release of the Senate Armed Services Committee report on prisoner abuse. Put a sharper point on it: war crimes that produce the death of a detainee are punishable with the death sentence. And in this case we now have more than one hundred deaths potentially linkable to detainee abuse, linked to the President. Yet to the American mainstream media, which has made virtually no effort to comprehend the report, it was a non-event.
1 comment:
By our lack of outrage, we are defining ourselves. When we pray for our "leaders", is this what we are praying for. When some refer to the United States as a "Christian Nation", what does the world see. Gitmo, Abu Grahib, renditions, water boarding?
No one should be above the law. As an American and a believer in Jesus Christ I am ashamed. I wish I was supprised.
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