Terrorists get their name from their use of violence and intimidation to terrorize or create paralyzing fear within a community or system. This can result in a lost sense of integral values and abandonment of justice in pursuit of personal agenda.
The Bush Administration’s response to the 9-11 tragedy and other worldwide “terror” was exactly that.
They undermined the global understanding of justice which the U.S. helped create during the Geneva Conventions and redefined humanity to mean “those unopposed to us.” Instead of disallowing the terrorist to intimidate us our government chose to lie to the world and pursue methods of interrogation comparable to practices of the Middle Ages.
During the past couple wars, our international prisons have unjustly practiced unwarranted long-term imprisonment, acts of torturous water-boarding and sexual humiliation. Of course the water-boarding at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Gitmo), which George Bush defended, and the sexual assaults at Abu Ghraib, which led to 17 discharges including officers who approved the abuses, went to the Supreme Court where they were deemed unconstitutional and opposed to Geneva.
The court’s decision allowed us to ignore the changing of Abu Ghraib’s name and the relocation of “high profile terror suspects” from Gitmo to undisclosed detention centers worldwide, because these were obviously isolated incidents that had been resolved.
Questions regarding the location of these terror suspects and the existence of secret CIA prisons have been relatively under the radar since the rulings, until last week when Bush admitted to the existence of these prisons after their discovery by the United Nations, who then demanded their closing. Bush rejected the UN’s command, claiming the prisons were necessary for the war on terror.
When asked about procedures used within them he said they aren’t torturous but refused to discuss techniques. Then, after being asked about Geneva compliance in regard to techniques involving nudity or inflicting emotional terror back onto the terrorists, Bush declared the UN’s definitions were “vague.”
After the World Wars, an epiphany was realized. The superpowers recognized that abominations like torture, genocide and lynching were without justice. We were leaders in making other nations understand that even the twisted and confused are human.
America set the example for integrity and unity during this period. But today we find our nation becoming more and more isolated and hated in a world that is becoming more connected by the day. The former values of inalienable rights to all have been replaced with hypocrisy, switching us to a regressive nation.
It’s our president’s responsibility to maintain America’s values worldwide, but instead all our proud nation can claim for itself is political confusion and paranoia. We should be embarrassed that America is being accused of practices that neglect humanity.
The United States has always been a protector of Geneva. If we allow our government to continue moving in this direction, what’s next, torture of American citizens? They’re already monitoring our phones and screening our e-mails, so what makes torture so distant if it’s to protect other American people?
