Dear Mr Bush Jr., WhyTorture?

Dear Mr. Bush Jr.,

Please ask Laura to read this to you before you go to bed tonight. Then pass it along at your daily morning briefing and ask them to explainify it to you.

The USA has many strengths. We have wide open spaces, amber waves of grain, and a diverse population of citizens and residents whom collectively create who we are as a nation. We have Big Guns and other things that go Boom. We have lots of money. Well, some of us do. For now.

However, Mr Bush Jr, we have developed a significant weakness. We have lost our reputation as a nation of people who want to be fair, just, and morally virtuous. I’m not talking about Viet Nam, Watergate, Contragate, Votergate, or even Foleygate, although those topics are worthy of discussion here. Mr. Bush Jr, we torture people. Human beings, just like you, just like your daughters. We deny people due process, habeas corpus, and other “inalienable rights” for which we used to stand.

I know, “they” are bad, very bad people, and the gloves are off. I know that “they” torture people, too. I know that you just want to win this War on Terror so that We won’t have to fight’em over here. For that reason, I must tell you, torture does not work. Many, many intelligent people (some of whom have served or are serving in our military and/or intelligence services now) have studied this at length and conclude that there are better methods of obtaining actionable intelligence. Here is one :

http://www.mcitta.org/torture.htm

I refer you to this Google page, http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=torture+doesn%27t+work&btnG=Search&meta=

also this page on the ethics of torture: http://ethics.sandiego.edu/Applied/Military/Torture.asp

just to get you started.

One of my favourite articles about an alternative to torture is about Marine Major Sherwood F. Moran, who was a Christian missionary in Japan before he joined the Marines in December 1941 at the age of 56. Here is a biography: http://home.comcast.net/~drmoran/home.htm

I have found a letter written by this most patriotic, gentle, yet effective interrogator of Japanese prisoners of war, where he outlines his techniques. Please read it and pass it along to the appropriate people:

http://mythingthepoint.blogspot.com/2006_07_09_archive.html

(My thanks to the keeper of that blog, it is one of the few places to find that letter in its entirety)

You see, Mr. Bush Jr, there are other ways to “enhance” interrogation techniques which may render more reliable information.

By the way, since we may conclude from the above information that abuse and torture don’t work, why are these techniques being used? What effect does torture have on the torturer? hmmm? And, how will they cope with their experiences when they once again walk among civilian compatriots? What kind of military and civilian intelligence network are we training here, Mr Bush Jr, and to what purpose?

May you feel better soon, Mr Bush Jr.

TAGS: Torture, Major Moran, Bush Jr., Remedial Reading and Comprehension