Bush and Torture

Mr. Bush exempted the US military from the Geneva Conventions when he declared the prisoners in Afghanistan as “ememy combatants” rather than “prisoners of war”. This was true in Iraq also, and it was also on this basis that Guantanamo Bay was started – a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and the US constitution.

When the Abu Ghraib torture was brought to light, no higher ups were held accountable, lest of all Rumsfeld and the man he sent to Iraq to start up this brand of sexual torture. (The only thing that has happened in Iraq that I did not expect at all was the gay S&M videos by US troops. And the fact that they reportedly put some of the pictures on their computer as screensavers. They turned into monsters.) When McCain got an anti-torture amendment passed, Mr. Bush issued a “signing order” saying that he was not subject to this new law of the land passed by the US legislature. (Bush has done this 750 times, by the way. He does not “veto” he just “ignores” and “exempts” the executive branch from the laws of the land.)

All of these things contributed GREATLY to the increase of torture by US agents and US troops around the world. And Mr. Bush is the criminal responsible for this. He sent a clear message that human rights abuses, torture, and violation of international law and US treaties were going to be the norm under his watch and during the never-ending “war on terror”. And, he violated the Nuremburg Principles when he started up this war in Iraq, and that violated our US constitution. (The fact that the US president has violated the constitution does not seem to be of much importance to the US legislature at this time – if it was, they would IMPEACH.)

Also note that the Canadian Mounties have arrested terror suspects with evidence that they are truly guilty, whereas the Bush administration has arrested nobody that was convicted on evidence – they were convicted by confessions from the “terrorists” who may have been tortured, or who may have been threatened with detention without trial for the rest of their lives. Yes, Bush did that too – guess if you are going to trash the constitution, might as well go for the Bill of Rights also.