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Earth to John McCain -- The Israelis Use Torture
Senator McCain is arguing for a U.S. policy against the use of torture. Among his arguments is that torture is ineffective and that the Israelis and Russians have learned to obtain information without torture by use of "psychological methods".The Israelis DO use torture. Perhaps McCain should read the new book by Norman Finkelstein which documents this fact. Perhaps more importantly, a policy statement makes good political theater, but would not in and of itself necessarily means that torture was not carried out. It would just mean that keeping secrecy regarding use of torture would be facilitated. ... The excuse that pending attacks could be prevented and lives saved by gathering timely information are disingenuous. If torture must be used to save lives and prevent attacks, then the government itself should never be allowed to hold information that could prevent attacks. We know that Franklin Roosevelt had access to all Japanese military and government radio the communications traffic, and he could have prevented the attack on Pearl Harbor by counterattacking the Japanese fleet well away from Hawaii. Roosevelt held his information tight and kept his awareness secret so that the attack could occur and America could be provoked into war against the Axis powers. The U.S. military developed ability to intercept and understand German military communications as well, and could have prevented any number of military battles in which soldiers were lost. But, for strategic reasons, American lives were sacrificed by the American government. Morals definitely took a back seat to military strategy. If morals are to be used as a reason to torture prisoners in the War on Terror, then morals must require that the U.S. government prevent all preventable deaths of U.S. citizens and military personnel and must not hold secrets that cost American lives. There is plenty of solid evidence to demonstrate that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were known in adequate detail to high officials of the U.S. government (and to others) prior to those attacks and the attacks could have easily been thwarted. Even Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco knew enough to avoid flying on that day, and he cancelled a trip to New York and avoided risk by his knowledge. The reality is that torture is and probably always will be standard operating procedure of the American military and government. Senator McCain is trying desperately to hide public knowledge of torture by erecting a barrier, a shield to public awareness. McCain wants to be able to say, "We don't torture anyone, we have a firm policy against it" and then perfect methods of keeping actual torture secret. The fact that McCain approves of Israeli methods means he is not sincere in stopping torture. Posted by: Gluper Thager2969 2005-11-22 |
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