Somehow
this just leaves me with a queasy feeling in my stomach:
Guards at Guantanamo Bay bragged about beating detainees and described it as common practice, a Marine sergeant said in a sworn statement obtained by The Associated Press.
...
A 19-year-old sailor referred to only as Bo "told the other guards and me about him beating different detainees being held in the prison," the statement said. "One such story Bo told involved him taking a detainee by the head and hitting the detainee's head into the cell door. Bo said that his actions were known by others," but that he was never punished, the statement said.
What the FUCK are we doing??
The article ended where I want to begin.
Last month, U.N. human rights investigators criticized the United States for failing to take steps to close Guantanamo Bay, home to 450 detainees, including 14 terrorist suspects who had been kept in secret CIA prisons around the world.
Described as the most dangerous of America's "war on terror" prisoners, fewer than a dozen inmates have been charged with crimes. [emphasis mine]
Anyone catch that? We have had 450 people in custody at Guantanamo since the start of this "Global War on Terror" four years ago, and we've charged fewer than a dozen.
And what are we doing with the remaining 440?
Other guards "also told their own stories of abuse towards the detainees" that included hitting them, denying them water and "removing privileges for no reason."
"About 5 others in the group admitted hitting detainees" and that included "punching in the face," the affidavit said.
"From the whole conversation, I understood that striking detainees was a common practice," the sergeant wrote. "Everyone in the group laughed at the others stories of beating detainees." [emphasis mine]
Where the hell is our sense of humanity? Of decency? And have we no sensibility left to understand what we are doing?
Through this incompetence, we are creating 440 new Osama Bin Laden's, people who must by now so HATE us for our absolute abuse of power and mockery of justice that they'll do anything to bring our country to its knees.
I suppose it's par for the course considering a majority of Iraqis support attacks on our troops, but still, where does our sense of decency and humanity kick in?
Or have we lost that entirely?