Wave The Flag

I’m not stupid, I know that this country has always used torture to obtain information from captives. It was, however, illegal, surreptitious, and performed by agents who at least pretended to be “rogues” who were doing it against policy. And that is the point; it has never been the policy of this nation to use torture.

The administration of George W. Bush changed that. He made the use of torture, later revised to be called “harsh interrogation techniques,” the official policy of this nation. Whether it was done on a large scale or not is irrelevant, it was officially sanctioned as an official act of our government, and that bell cannot be “unrung.”

Similarly, we have always used assassination as a tool to promote our agenda and to assure our safety, but we have done so secretly and never admitted that we were doing it. Such measures were specifically prohibited to the CIA by Congress. Barack Obama has changed that and made assassination the official policy of this nation, even making flamboyant announcements after assassinations are carried out, and trumpeting them as great successes.

Killing on the battlefield is one thing, and we do too much of that as well, but turning us into a nation of assassins is quite another. We are, today, a nation which revels in our fleet of drones with their “Hellfire” missiles which roam the world, carrying out our secret “kill list” to put to death anyone whom we deem worthy of death, for any reason we decide is sufficient, at any time or place that we choose, along with anyone else nearby.

That, to me, is not a pretty picture.