Torture by the USA

Photo:

Former Abu Ghraib detainee Ali Shallal al-Qaisi points to his photo during his 6 month detention in Abu Ghraib Prison, at his office in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday, June 18, 2008. Al-Qaisi accused his American captors of 'traumatizing and humiliating' him and hundreds of other Iraqi prisoners. Physicians for Human Rights is releasing a report saying former detainees in American military jails in Iraq and Guantanamo are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and lingering injuries that can be traced to their imprisonment.

(AP Photo/Nader Daoud)

There has been lots of evidence presented this week about the US policies of torture. I wish I had more time to write about it, but I am pressed for time. Today I am leaving for the NC Democratic Party state convention in New Bern, NC. I find the idea of going to this rather depressing - I don't think many people 'get it' and frankly, the Democrats are looking like less and less like a solution of any kind. They are just as criminal as the Republicans.

Here's a quote on torture:

[torture] "presupposes, it requires, it craves the abrogation of our capacity to imagine others' suffering, dehumanizing them so much that their pain is not our pain. It demands this of the torturer, placing the victim outside and beyond any form of compassion or empathy, but also demands of everyone else the same distancing, the same numbness…" - Ariel Dorfman [from his book "Torture: A Collection"]