January 20th, 2015

A majority of Americans think the overall state of moral values in the country are getting worse, and the international reputation of the US is a topic of discussion.

America, of which is said “is not just a landmass or a population, it is an idea. It is an idea of freedom, decency, the rule of law, and a place where people with talent and ambition can achieve their dreams.”

After 9/11 it seems the United States has lost its way and its professed moral superiority is misplaced given the way it has been mistreating other human beings. During this episode it has operated outside of the law and has broken every principle the country once stood for.

It’s a shameful and tragic episode in the country’s history, which is beyond understanding. Come what may, America needs to reclaim its decency, without destroying their basic moral values and goodness.

However, with the invasion of Iraq, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, extra-judicial killings, indefinite detention without charge, use of torture and drones bombing it makes a mockery of concept liberty and the rule of law. It has operated outside  international law, the rules of the Geneva Convention by using brute force, torture and committing war crimes and we Europeans and other countries are guilty by association, allowing rendition.

The term “enhanced interrogation” as used by the CIA mirrors the Gestapo term “sharpened interrogation” which permitted techniques included sleep deprivation, dark cells and exhaustion with beatings only allowed in the presence of a doctor.

Just like in Nazi Germany the methods the CIA has used are similar and shown from Abu Ghraib to the dark rooms in the Cobalt facilities and we were provided with another lesson about unlimited brutality and how torture methods have entered the 21st century.

This despite the fact that in 1955 the United States signed all 7 of the International Treaties which make up the Geneva Convention, which holds the same power of authority as the US Constitution and therefore it can conclude that torture in any form to any person is unconstitutional and considered an international crime. By wilfully ignoring the treaty, this has made different administrations likewise war criminals. Torturing governments are no better than any third-world, torturing dictatorship.

Today the US has realized that there is a moral case against torture and there is a ban on torture and also a practical one since torture produces unreliable information and in the process is corrupting and alienating personal which are bothered by their conscience.

But still today, not bothered by the moral case against torture since rendition is still used thereby the Government transfer detainees to foreign countries to be tortured, despite the fact that “enhanced interrogation” is illegal.

The same can be said about Guantanamo, which is a travesty of justice and despite President Obama his promises to close is still functioning today fully.

To conclude, relevant US law condemns not only war criminals such as Dick Cheney, but also the unrepentant Barack Obama, because he himself, which is perhaps too much to expect, openly refuses to prosecute the torturing war criminals of the era behind us. The authorization to torture, and also the subsequent refusal to prosecute its prior authorization of torture makes it a war crime.

It’s also likely Dick Cheney will be seen as an American unrepentant war criminal and humanity while it should but does not have the courage to call Dick Cheney what he truly is: a war criminal who should be prosecuted.

There is no better recruitment tool for IS then to show the pictures of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo and the unwillingness to prosecute the guilty. Today IS shows their victims in orange jumpsuits, while they claim to do the same what was done to them.

 WJJH