Democracy Now! | Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror

Democracy Now! | Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror: "DR. STEVEN MILES: Yeah, when I first saw these pictures from Abu Ghraib, the question was, “Well, where were the docs?” because docs and nurses are frontline human rights monitors. They're there when the Red Cross isn't. They can get into any part of the prison, and furthermore, even if they don't see the abuse, they see the signs of the abuse, and we are trained to find abuse when it’s crafted to be indiscernible, okay, as a lot of abuse is.

And so I'm reading along, I’m just trying to understand why there was a failure of reporting, and all of sudden what I'm seeing is that the medical system is entirely integrated into the abuse, that there was a structure, there was an actual policy mechanism that can be seen for the delayed release of torture-related homicides, that there was an entire structure for culling patients medical records for information on their vulnerabilities, incorporating that into harsh, incursive interrogation plans, monitoring those plans, designing those plans with psychological insights to exploit the particular characteristics of Islamic men, and then monitoring the disintegration of these men, and feeding that back into the torture plans. It’s an amazing story. It was very discouraging to read. But in every country that’s fought torture, and Chile’s a good example, the docs have played a key role in stopping it."

Base Assumptions

Base Assumptions: "This month's offensive by President Bush and his allies in Congress against gay marriage and flag burning proves one thing: The Republican Party thinks its base of social conservatives is a nest of dummies who have no memories and respond like bulls whenever red flags are waved in their faces."

Enron is a Parable

I just saw the movie, 'Enron the smartest guys in the room'.
And it dawned on me that Enron is a parable for the whole of American society.

The CEOs of Enron were professional liars, and the great majority of employes followed them blindly. They were manipulated, and would have insulted anyone telling them the truth at the time. Their pride was such that the possibility of them being lied to cover up illegal and inmoral activity by such a mighty company was ruled out from the start without ever needing to consider the evidence.

But guess what, the building came down on their faces.
I say this is a parable to understand where America finds itself today. But the truth sonner or later will come to light.

The Evil Is In Our Government by Paul Craig Roberts

The Evil Is In Our Government by Paul Craig Roberts: "The US government has spent the past half century interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, overthrowing or assassinating their chosen leaders and imposing its puppets on foreign peoples. To what country has Iran done this, or Iraq, or North Korea?

Americans think that they are the salt of the earth. The hubris that comes from this self-righteous belief makes Americans blind to the evil of their leaders. How can American leaders be evil when Americans are so good and so wonderful?"

Christianity and the War by Laurence M. Vance

Christianity and the War by Laurence M. Vance: "I do believe that the support of Christian evangelicals for the president and his war is waning. Perhaps it is not out of principle, but at least support for this war has diminished somewhat (although gullible Christians can be counted on to support the next intervention or war if a Republican president undertakes it). But it is a blight on Christianity that many of those who continue to support Bush and his war are evangelical Christians. To their everlasting shame, I suspect that it is evangelical Christians who will support Bush until the bitter end – no matter how many more U.S. soldiers are killed, no matter long the war continues, no matter how many more billions of dollars are wasted, and no matter what outrages the president commits against the Constitution, the rule of law, and Christianity itself.

What, then, should be done? We should immediately withdraw our forces from Iraq, not because the war is not going as planned, not because we have suffered too many casualties, not because we have removed Saddam Hussein, not because we have accomplished our mission, not because there are too many insurgents, and not because Iraq had an election. We should withdraw our troops because the war was a monstrous wrong from the very beginning. How many more dead American soldiers and billions of dollars will it take before we finally say enough is enough? How many more dead American soldiers and billions of dollars will it take before the members of Congress say enough is enough? King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said that there was 'a time of war.' This, my fellow Americans, is not the time."