What's getting to me about the Foley thing

[nancylebov]

As bad things go, what Foley did was only fair-to-middling bad. As a result of it, political careers will be ended and elections will probably be affected. There might be criminal charges.

At the same time, the US government has been torturing people, sometimes to death. It's quite plausible that this is still going on, what with all those prisoners being held in secret. A law has been passed making it legal to hold prisoners indefinitely in secret. This has not had nearly as much political effect as the Foley scandal, and the legitimizing of torture doesn't seem to be a big issue in the upcoming election.

I begin to suspect that I am surrounded by crazy people.

Comments

[esmereldachubb.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!!! I hate the fact that we live in a country where it's seen as politically expedient to vote *for* a bill that legalizes torture and eliminates legal rights for people accused of terrorism.

I wonder if people will start to care when Congress passes a bill that allows the police to hold *anybody* indefinitely without access to lawyers, or a right to a trial, or even to know what the charges against them are? Or when the police are allowed to torture suspects for a confession?

Gah. Don't get me started.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

A lot of people wouldn't care--some people would think it was a good idea. Because, after all, the police only arrest guilty people, and I'm not guilty of anything.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Afaik, Americans can have their citizenship taken away, and then be treated as enemy combatants.

It's not just seen as politically expedient to vote for torture, it is politically expedient to vote for torture.

There are all too many people who say "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime." This assumes that everyone who's convicted is guilty, and removes all responsibility for moderating the level of punishment.

And there's a tremendous amount of popular art with interrogation scenes based on the premise that torture and/or threats of torture is a quick reliable way of getting the truth with no bad side effects worth mentioning.

When I've described such art as a bad thing, the most common answer has been "but if it were done differently, it wouldn't be any fun". The US has had a pro-torture culture for a long, long time (how about getting suspects to agree to plea bargains by threatening to give them a cell mate who will rape them?)--9/11 just made it obvious.

[libertarianhawk.livejournal.com]

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