What We Did, and Do

A roundup of what we do, from tomdispatch:

A partial list of methods of torture recently reported (or reported yet again) would include: detainees chained hand and foot to the floor in a fetal position for up to 24 hours without food or water and left to lie in their own fecal matter; detainees beaten and kicked while hooded; paraded naked around a courtyard while photos were being snapped; left in extreme hot or cold temperatures for extended periods; wrapped in an Israeli flag while loud rap music played and strobe lights flashed; or possibly even having fingernails torn out; placement of lit cigarettes into the detainees' ear openings; sleep deprivation; partial strangulation; death threats during interrogation; the use of dogs to force frightened prisoners to urinate; the holding of wires from an electric transformer to a detainee's shoulders, so that the man 'danced as he was shocked'; mock drowning or 'waterboarding'; mock executions of Iraqi juveniles; severely burning a detainee's hands by covering them in alcohol and igniting them; holding a pistol to the back of a detainee's head while another Marine takes a picture; fake (and real) acts of sexual assault and sodomy; being hit with rifle butts; suffering electric shocks and immersion in cold water; being beaten to death. These and other crimes against very specific humanity have taken place from Guantanamo to Iraq, Afghanistan to the CIA's secret prisons around the world.

By we, I mean us. You, reading this blog, me, writing it. All of us. Let's say it loud and say it proud: "I stuck cigarettes in people's ears. I sodomized prisoners. I tied people up and left them to piss and shit on themselves. I am a torturer." Let's say it to our kids. Let's say it to our neighbors and our bosses. Why not? We've already said it to the rest of the world...