thenatureofmind

Torture: It's effect on the torturers

Donald Rumsfeld once wondered aloud whether we were creating more terrorists than we were killing. In counterinsurgency doctrine, that is precisely the right question. Victory in this kind of war comes when the enemy loses legitimacy in the society from which it seeks recruits and thus loses its “recuperative power.”

The torture methods that Tenet defends have nurtured the recuperative power of the enemy. This war will be won or lost not on the battlefield but in the minds of potential supporters who have not yet thrown in their lot with the enemy. If we forfeit our values by signaling that they are negotiable in situations of grave or imminent danger, we drive those undecideds into the arms of the enemy. This way lies defeat, and we are well down the road to it.

-Charles C. Krulak, commandant of the Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999, and Joseph P. Hoar, commander in chief of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994

‘Torture Betrays Us’

 

Free Aung San Suu Kyi

This is something long overdue. Aung San Suu Kyi has consistently taken a non-violent position, simply requesting dialog with the rulers of her country. Her payment has been solitary confinement. 59 world leaders have sent a letter to Than Shwe the senior General in Burma's government. He should read it and listen to the plea contained therein.
Letter to Burma