By RF Schatten
Is anyone truly surprised that America overwhelmingly approves the use of Torture by the CIA? Well! in the words of Gomer Pyle; surprise! surprise! surprise!
We 'are' the most violent nation in the world, look at our love for guns!...and the biggest prison population in the planet! Look at the poor kids getting shot right and left in the schools...and, in the streets. Yea! people care, and many are outraged...but does anything ever get accomplished? Nope! not yet, it all comes down for lawmakers to pass laws protecting its citizens...and politicos today, are beholden to their personal bank account more than those who voted them there. Apparently, people don't give a damn who they vote in...they'll just give them bad ratings, afterward...the dysfunction of the American Voter.
Violence is part of our wonderful history and culture...the early witch hunts and the burnings. When the wretched refuse civilized as a nation and organized themselves...in the spirit of opening up new frontiers for a new country...the annihilation of the Native American began. Later the use of slavery thrived in the South...and when it ended, came the hate and racism of the KKK with their cross burnings and hangings. In the wild west, you had the lawlessness, the lynch mobs, and the hangings...Americans must have had a fascination with Hangings. It's the fascination with sadistic violence...the most hideous the better...and "Torture" ranks right way up that alley!
Almost every war throughout history began because of religious fundamentalist fervor...whether is Christianity or Islam, or any other faith. You ask most Americans, about what the word "Crusades" means to a Muslim? and most wouldn't have a clue...yet, we'll criticize their culture for acting in many ways, the same as Fundamentalist Christians and Catholics...and you know how Catholics and Inquisitions go hand in hand! All Religious Fundamentalism, whether it's Christianity, Islam, or Judaism...all believe in 'an eye for an eye' theory in their writings...so, it's easy to put up with torture by our country since every other country, probably does it too.
Carl Jong once said; "generally, it is the tortured who turn into torturers". Generally...but the United States is not a country that ever went through any torturous or suppressive government regimes...only one internal civil war, and the only time we've been invaded by a foreign power was on December 7th, and never has the US mainland 'ever' experience a military invasion. 9/11? A totally different situation, and should be understood. as that. Terrorist attacks? sign of the times...all 9/11 did was to make the US the latest the join the club of major cities around the world, hit by terrorists. Every country around the world...in one way or another...uses torture, even though under the Geneva Convention, torture 'is' a war crime.
Whether it's the horseshit about Religious moral teachings or the psychobabble about 2nd Amendment and Gun Rights by right wing nuts...Torture is still a crime, and as much as they believe that anything is OK as long it's in the best interest of our nation...doesn't change the fact it still wrong and immoral. We can't criticize others, when we're just as bad or worse...someone has to take that high moral ground...America is not the babyface hero this time around. Only We, the People, can change things...but, to what length are people willing go?
This Week in God, 12.20.14 | MSNBC
