You might say we all have a monster in us, but the thing that keeps us from turning into that monster is the law. A government that can authorize/commit torture in complete secrecy is a government without real laws. A government that thinks it can cover torture up is a government without laws. A government that thinks it can ignore torture is a government without laws.
If the people who committed the crime were Republicans, and the people who are now finally getting around to covering it up are Democrats, that leaves us with no viable option. We can wait four years to vote this guy out, or two years to vote out Congress, but if he was the fresh blood who'd take care of this problem, then no new blood will do anything to end it.
A government that can authorize torture in secret or cover it up or ignore it is a government that can do whatever it pleases.
There are no ifs, ands or buts. That's it. Plain and simple. What else can a government legalize in secret? About the only thing worse than torture is mass abduction, mass torture or even mass extermination. When it gets that far, then there's nothing that can be done to stop it.
Torture is a line in the sand, and ignoring torture, almost as if we're talking about unpaid parking tickets, is THE line in the sand. That's it. No more, no further. Any further and the government has become Nazi Germany's government. It's already pretty damn close when you have people with medical knowledge like psychologists participating in the torture of human beings.
Not just once or twice, no, the new details released show at least one guy was tortured 183 times. Even if torture were excusable, 183 times is obviously not excusable.
If any citizen in this country were to be accused of such a crime, there would be no hesitation to prosecute us. Why should it be any different for members of government?
Even if a police officer was accused of committing torture under those circumstances, there would be a massive outrage, it might even be worse than a regular citizen doing that.
Why should it be any different for CIA officers or the members of the former administration?
Not prosecuting torture is a furtherance of the original crime, it is a criminal conspiracy, and I see no reason why the current administration shouldn't be prosecuted for not prosecuting.
They refused to impeach the original criminals, so we had an election, and the person elected apparently refuses to prosecute torture, what can we do within this system to stop this?
We could sue them, but if these people weren't bound by the laws on the books, why should they be bound by the decision of a court?
This matter cannot be solved by the the last three branches of government mentioned in the US Constitution.
Even after more than 220 years, that document's real name can still be seen. The first three words ring out through history. WE THE PEOPLE.
The people who wrote those words were not perfect by any means, you might even go so far to call them hypocrites. They really did a half-assed job on this country, but they did get one thing right, they put WE THE PEOPLE right at the start. That's because a government without the people is no government of, by or for the people.
The government of, by and for the people was abducted, shipped halfway around the world wearing a black hood, locked away in a secret prison, and tortured 183 times. That's what these people were really doing when they were torturing "bad guys" they were really torturing the real government of America. Don't let them tell you any different. There are no "bad guys" who are so bad we can suspend our most basic laws or our most fundamental principles.
The only thing that keeps
us from being bad guys is those laws, those principles. That's it. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. They wanted us to think there are, but they were lying to us. These people played to the actual monster inside of us, fear. It has been out for too long. It's time to put the monster away, time to lock him up for life. He's not fit to walk the streets, nor are the people who became the monster by doing this.
It's not going to be easy, but WE THE PEOPLE must lock this monster away. If we shrink from this responsibility, then we become the monster ourselves.
To frame it this way is not an hyperbole, accepting torture is an hyperbole. Accepting torture is more outrageous than fighting to prosecute it. You would have to be a monster to think any different. This is one of the few topics there is no real debate about, that's the monster telling you there is. The monster is afraid that it might be locked away.
Well I have news for it, it better go outside one last time and get some fresh air, because it's not going to be getting any for a very long time.
I have just about the same advice for the people who turned into the monster as well. They can try to run, but they can never hide from the truth. The truth will track them down like a well-trained bounty hunter and bring them in.
Public outrage will grow over this issue, and that outrage will force the monster back. The best thing we can do is to keep talking about it. Let the truth be known. Let the people of this nation know it is our responsibility now. We must do this. Every television program, every radio show, all of YouTube will eventually be filled with people trying to put the monster back where it came from. It's only through pressure from the public that anything will ever really happen.
We must veto the actions of the other branches of government. We must rule them unconstitutional. We must repeal this law ourselves.