-Franklin Delano Roosevelt-
Tough is cheap. Acts of cruelty are the mark of the coward, not of the strong and cowardly are the cringing crowds who still support the Bush/Cheney notion that there are no limits to moral behavior in the face of “terror.” Just as they have sought over the years to justify treatment of criminals by the amount of anger we have, they now seek to undermine human values through justification by fear.
“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. “
These famous words from FDR’s first inaugural address were what the nation needed to hear in September of 2001, but what we heard was “be afraid.” What we got was “9/11 changed everything” as though Pearl Harbor or the declaration of war on the US by Hitler had required us to abandon all moral considerations.
We didn’t torture the Nazi prisoners or Japanese prisoners, and not even the leaders, and as a result we won the world’s respect as moral liberators not as conquerors. We did not retreat; we advanced and we advanced the cause of freedom.
All this seems lost on the Bush/Cheney war machine as they continue to seethe about the exposure of their secret torture chambers in Romania and elsewhere. They are in retreat in Iraq and Afghanistan and we have mortgaged our morals and our freedom.
They are adamant in denying that we torture anyone, yet they are adamant about insisting that they need to continue torturing in order to extract information. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) says a little torture never hurt anybody because we are trying "to detain and interrogate the worst of the worst." That we don’t know who the worst of the worst are much of the time – unless we first torture them, harkens back to the Inquisition and witch hunts where you had to die horribly to prove your innocence.
Remember when Warped War President George told us to go to Disneyland or the “Terrorists” would win? They’ve already won – they’ve dragged us down to their level with the eager cooperation of the ruthless bastards who hijacked our government, our morals our treasury and our self-respect.
It’s no wonder that the Republicans hate Darwin. Darwin turned animals into men – they turn men into animals.
5 comments:
How about this quote from the new movie "V for Vendetta" - People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.
I also like "why do people drive on parkways and park on driveways?"
See The Ring of Gyges.
Which is the thought precursor to the "Lord of the Rings"
Which is the thought precursor of the idea that you cannot fight evil with evil, because you cannot employ evil means even for good without becoming the thing which you struggle against.
Evil is nasty stuff. It tends to get on you and you cant get it off.
Which is the precursor behind the idea that we can and should torture large numbers of people to get information about a ticking time bomb, which may or may not exist, which the poor fellow on the waterboard may or may not know anything about, in order to "save lives" which may or may not be in danger.
Even if we farm out the torture work - subcontract it - to other countries who will gladly do our bidding -- via ex-straw-dinary rendition -- every time we put on the Ring of Secrecy - the Ring increases its power over us until we are too weak to resist.
My Precious!
Absolute power corrupts absolutely - Plato was right, but so were the Founding Fathers who tired to limit the power of any branch of government. I'm not sure they envisioned someone as evil as the Bush Administration.
good post.
first fdr quote is new 2 me. 'sgood. kindness is #1 virtue in my opinion.
not so sure we never tortured b4 tho. let's face it: we all kno guys who'r only 2 ready 2 do stuff like that unofficially. it ain't new.
main thing is do evrthing we can 2 stop it.
I'm quite sure there wer abuses in every war, but if people were tortured by us in WWII, it was not offical policy to ignore the Geneva Convention - as it is now.
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