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Current Events » in reply to Why Do So Many Equate Panties On The Head With Death?

re: Why Do So Many Equate Beatings and Death in Custody with Panties On The Head?
Mary Anne — (archived)

The latter is a PR disaster because it shows manifest disrespect for the religion of the region. We show we understand Islam well enough to use it as a club, but not well enough to respect it as a religion with many variants and many levels of spirituality.

Think of it this way: What if American men were softened up for interrogation by deliberate homosexual assault? It's well-known that our military is hostile to homosexuality, and so is composed of two groups: heterosexuals and deeply closeted gays. It's less well-known, but true, that men will respond physically when stimulated, even against their will, if certain techniques are used. A person could make a case that this would not be harmful to a man in any life-threatening way, and so doesn't constitute torture. A person could also make a case that keeping someone confined in a space in which one could not stand or lie down isn't life-threatening, and so doesn't constitute torture. But what would it do to him?

The continuing use of tactics that result in physical harm, psychological derangement, and death in prisoners who may not even be guilty of anything (can we establish that first, before the beatings?) grows out of a continuing pattern of disrespect for those who are different from us.

You want tough interrogation? I understand the NYC police department is developing a counterterrorism group that begins to rival the FBI's, and that they operate within the boundaries of the law. Maybe there's a different way of doing things than the spit-in-his-face-and-kick-him-in-the-kidneys school. Maybe, if we look at other ways of getting to the same point, we can find a way to save our lives and our souls at the same time. Gradually behaving more like the people we fight doesn't strike me as a viable way to do this.

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