Progressive World Review

Once revered world-wide as a beacon of freedom and justice, America has devolved into just the kind of nation we were all raised to abhor.  Started as a grand experiment in democracy where all are created equal, where we’re a nation of laws and not men, we’ve sunk to the point where our president not only believes he’s above the law but that the ends justify the means and that nothing, including torture, is off limits.  From an op-ed column in The New York Times written by Nicholas Kristof,

My Times colleague Barry Bearak was imprisoned by the brutal regime in Zimbabwe last month. Barry was not beaten, but he was infected with scabies while in a bug-infested jail. He was finally brought before a court after four nights in jail and then released.

Alas, we don’t treat our own inmates in Guantánamo with even that much respect for law. On Thursday, America released Sami al-Hajj, a cameraman for Al Jazeera who had been held without charges for more than six years. Mr. Hajj has credibly alleged that he was beaten, and that he was punished for a hunger strike by having feeding tubes forcibly inserted in his nose and throat without lubricant, so as to rub tissue raw.

“Conditions in Guantánamo are very, very bad,” Mr. Hajj said in a televised interview from his hospital bed in Sudan, adding, “In Guantánamo, you have animals that are called iguanas … that are treated with more humanity.” (emphasis added)

This is precisely the kind of thing this country is supposed to be against.  It would be bad enough if one of our allies were to condone this type of treatment (and many do), but it’s reprehensible for this country to run this kind of prison itself.

And to simply call these prisoners terrorists or enemy combatants doesn’t excuse this at all.  As the article points out, many if not most of these people are completely innocent of any crime,

First, most of the inmates were probably innocent all along, but Pakistanis or Afghans turned them over to America in exchange for large cash rewards. The moment we offered $25,000 rewards for Al Qaeda supporters, any Arab in the region risked being kidnapped and turned over as a terrorism suspect.

And to the extent that any of the prisoners are in fact terrorists, descending to their level (or worse), not only goes against the founding principles of this country, it’s morally wrong by any decent standard, religious, ethical or humanitarian.

It’s an unfortunate fact that many in this country consider patriotism to be nothing more than believing their country to be superior to all others for no other reason than they were born in it.  But in fact, real patriotism is demanding your country act in the highest moral and ethical standard possible.  We all learned in school that our government operates on a system of checks and balances, that no branch of government is more powerful than another but presently we have an Executive branch that considers itself above the law, a Legislative branch that whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats, refuses to perform its constitutional duty of reigning in lawlessness and a Judicial branch that increasingly acts on partisan self-interest.  But worse of all is a citizenry that evades its civic duty of providing the ultimate check and balance against excessive government power by acting in blind patriotic loyalty rather than with healthy skepticism.  And contrary to popular opinion, when your country is at war more skepticism is required, not less.

–Paul Wilden

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