Explaining human dignity to President Bush |
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by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News Sept. 19, 2006
Outrages upon human dignity are prohibited by international law, and are war crimes according to the Geneva Conventions. President Bush finds this vague and baffling.
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What is "human dignity"?, the President wonders. What is an "outrage"?
1. A human is a living being with a conscious, self-aware mind. Many people believe that humans have souls or spirits.
An outrage upon human dignity is to damage and possibly break, irreparably, what is essentially human: the mind and spirit. A broken mind may not be able to make informed, rational decisions. A broken mind may not be able to repent to the Creator of his or her choice. Thus, torture goes against the tenets of Christianity and most other religions.
President Bush asked for clarity about the meaning of "outrages upon human dignity." The Golden Rule answers his question: How would you like it if this were done to you?
2. The use of torture lowers the standing of America to the sub-human, to that of bestial barbarity. If America needs to use torture to win wars then we are wasting $500 BILLION a year, spending more on "defense" than all other nations put together. If America disdains the opinion of the other 5.7 billion humans on the planet and must use torture to survive, then we might as well just start dropping nukes.
There is no fundamental moral difference between torture and murder.
3. The information obtained using torture is inherently unreliable. A person being tortured will say anything to make the torture stop.
4. A person who has been tortured can never be released from custody, whether or not that person is innocent. After being tortured a person might well decide to seek vengeance: if they weren't our enemies before we tortured them, they will be afterwards.
5. The use of torture takes us down a slippery slope. Today we might torture only suspected terrorists, but tomorrow the list might expand to include suspected murderers, and then one day anyone suspected of committing a felony. And why stop there? Torture anyone suspected of disloyalty to the government.
6. If we torture enemy prisoners, we can expect to be tortured by our enemies. What goes around comes around.
7. Torture degrades the rule of law, the fundamental purpose of which is to make it possible to settle disputes peacefully. If a person knows that he or she will be tortured after being arrested or captured and will not receive a fair trial, then there is no reason to surrender peacefully — in fact, it would be preferable to die fighting than to die in the torturer's dungeons and secret prisons.
© by the author.
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President Bush asked for clarity about the meaning of "outrages upon human dignity."
The Golden Rule answers his question: How would you like it if this were done to you?
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There's much more than this at Unknown News.
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