Nightmares of Reality

I had a very difficult time sleeping last night. I had watched a documentary – Torture – Guantanamo Guidebook which I found to be very disturbing. It’s not like I haven’t seen the pictures, I have and then some. I have read human rights reports from a plethora of reliable sources. The phrase that looped through my mind continuously was one from a prisoner that I read on the Amnesty International website. He said that he would take a physical beating any day over the psychological abuse that was inflicted upon him.

The documentary was about seven guys who volunteer to endure, I believe, 40 hours of the same kind of treatment Gitmo prisoners are receiving. Three dropped out before the end – one was experiencing symptoms of hypothermia the other two were just broken mentally. All either had an ambivalent attitude towards torture or agreed with it completely. That was before the experiment. Afterwards all were against it.

It bothers me to no end how this administration has wreaked havoc on words. I love words. But rape is rape regardless of what you call it. A prisoner of war is a POW whether you call him an enemy combatant or detainee or a terrorist. The continuous manipulation of our language to get around a binding contract that we signed by way of the Geneva Convention, sickens me. Over and over the experiment demonstrated psychological and physical acts that are clearly against the agreement, renamed so that the actual act was murky and difficult to characterize.

What kept me up last night was knowing that over five hundred people are languishing in Gitmo for four years being brutalized in this manner in our name. Four years. Never allowed to settle. Constantly being moved so no real connection between the prisoners can be established. Blaring insanity inducing white noise at deafening decibels into headphones of a prisoner for hours on end while he is forced into a stress position naked with freezing cold air being blown on him. This is who we are? We are defined by what is allowed to exist in our name. By sanctioned actions. What happens in the black hole prisons, what happens in Gitmo Bay, what happens by legislation or ignorance is what defines us as a nation. Don’t hate me! Hate my government! What a ridiculous thing to say! Our government represents us. Our government is us. I know it makes it a lot easier to allow things to happen if you disassociate but I’m afraid you can’t do that in this case.

I watched Bill Maher on Friday. I got extraordinarily perturbed by the “you get the government you deserve” nonsense that spilled from someone’s mouth. Well, actually, no. You see, when the voting machines are corrupt, regardless of how many people turn up to change things, if the machines are bad, the vote is bad. The machines are bad. We have a lot of work to do. It’s going to take more than going out and voting this time. It’s going to take a complete overhaul of our election system. Otherwise, November will be pointless. It has been repeatedly proven that our electronic voting machines are very easily corrupted and the corruption more times than not is untraceable.

But back to torture. Those that believe in torture have never experienced it. I cannot comprehend anyone thinking that any kind of torture is acceptable.
It is archaic.
It is ruthless.
It is soulless.
It is cruelty that is beneath us.
Locking up people indefinitely that you SUSPECT are against you is the height of paranoia.
Threatening them constantly.
Subjecting them to intolerable heat or cold for long periods of time.
Solitary confinement with blaring sirens, white noise and strobe lights for hours on end.
Years of solitary confinement.
Limiting food.
Sexual humiliation.
Stress positions for extended periods of time.
This defines us as a nation.
I am ashamed of what we are doing. Regardless of what you think of people who are darker than you, regardless of how threatened you are by these people, they are people.
They are human beings with rights.
With families.
With feelings and thoughts.
What we are doing is inhumane.
We are breaking the law.
What will we do about it?