There is an excellent article in the NYT today, written by Bob Herbert. I am so glad that he is paying attention to and writing about this very serious issue, and glad that Mr. Arar is getting some attention for the torture and mistreatment he suffered because of American decisions. Here is a bit of Herbert's article:
"As a nation, does the United States have a conscience? Or is anything and everything O.K. in post-9/11 America? If torture and the denial of due process are O.K., why not murder? When the government can just make people vanish - which it can, and which it does - where is the line that we, as a nation, dare not cross?"
Indeed, what lines would we dare not cross? Invasion and occupation of a foreign country that did not attack us or threaten us maybe? Invasion of a country that could not be a threat to our country? Oh, we crossed that line. How about claiming we are bringing freedom and democracy to these people in the occupied country, and never bothering to count the civilian dead? How about just ignoring that fact? Oh, we crossed that line too. The right wing Republican blood-thirsty Christians are fully behind all those invisible lines of morality, and they don't care one bit. How about letting those same people suffer and suffer and suffer, and just ignoring it? Oh, we crossed that line.
How about locking people up without charges or even a trial, when they were innocent all along? Oh yes, we crossed that line also. And we have sent innocent people to countries that we have called "terrorist" to be tortured, and we have disappeared people too. What lines are left to cross?
You can read all of Herbert's article here (registration required):
http://nytimes.com/2005/02/28/opinion/28herbert.html?hp
It is not a pretty picture of America. It is not even a picture of America that I recognize. What has happened to our country? Where has our decency and morality gone? How have we come to this?
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