If Torture Was Categorically Wrong When Hitler Did It, Then Why Is the CIA Excused When They Do It?

[kpete]

We knew it was wrong when Hitler did it—but when Dick Cheney committed the same heinous crimes—it’s excused by the corporate network media pundits.


................

I would like to ask the corporate network media defenders of the Bush-Cheney administration if they believe that the techniques of torture committed by the S.S. paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler should be discussed as a “controversial” and “debatable” issue? That is to say, if Hitler defended his S.S. torture operations in the name of “national security” would that make torture under Nazi Germany justifiable? If the answer is “no” then when the CIA commits the same heinous crimes of torture, why is that up for debate? If they agree that it is plainly wrong when Hitler did it—then why is it excusable when the CIA does it?


Ironically, we were told by the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein “had to go” because he “tortured his people.” Once again, I must raise the question: if the US media condemned Saddam Hussein for torturing or executing those whom he believed were traitors, if it was wrong when Saddam Hussein did it, then why is it acceptable when the CIA does the exact same thing? And if that’s the standard-justification that the Bush administration used to hang Saddam Hussein, then the same standard should also be used for every member of the Bush administration and the CIA torturers as well as the lawyers who attempted to make the gruesome act of torture—legal.

............

We knew it was wrong when Hitler did it. Categorically wrong. There was no debate about it. It was wrong. Period. It was so wrong that it led to the signing of the Geneva Conventions that made it exceedingly clear to world leaders that the brutal, insane practice of torture is illegal, immoral and a crime against humanity.

............

It was wrong when the Romans did it, it was wrong when the Church did it, it was wrong when the Nazis did it and it is wrong when the CIA does it.

MORE:
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/if-torture-was-categorically-wrong-when-hitler-did-it-then-why-is-the-cia-excused-when-they-do-it

[jwirr]

1. Exactly to your last sentence. It is interesting the families/companies of the PTB (bush and

cheney) were connected to the Hitler people during the war. Prescott bush help Hitler and Cheney's company Helliburton had a subsidiary that was also involved in some way. Also the CIA recruited former Nazi's to create the CIA. This is out of the top of my memory so no links. But there are links somewhere.

[KoKo]

2. We have to look "Forward...not Backward?"

"Times have Changed" and we need to deal with Terrorists. Terrorists are not Human. Terrorists deserve "torture" because they might have information that Our Military Needs to "Keep the People Safe."

"We don't torture...our Enhanced Interrogation methods are supervised by Medial Personnel every step of the way."

etc.

??????????????

[atreides1]

3. Because...

...the United States is exceptional!!!

[olddots]

4. we have entire branches of government who operate

In a void of what we call mental illness and pgycopathy .We love spys , torture ,deceit and lying .
We strafe and snipe ,ambush and rape in the name of some abstract good with god on our side .It is all humans not just America but what makes it so wrong is the way we (not hopefully us here )believe we are so mentally healthy and above our own beliefes of right and wrong ,good and evil .

Shit who doesn't like a good James Bond movie where we make believe the rules are ours to make and and brake .The Nazis thought they were the good guys etc...etc.....This is all about mental health something we know nothing about and it will kill the planet untill we start giving a shit about it .

[nichomachus]

5. IOKIYAA

It' OK if you're an American.

[The2ndWheel]

6. But the Romans, the Church, and the Nazis didn't think it was wrong when they were doing it

It's not like Hitler stopped himself, right? It took multiple external forces to do it. External forces that were in no way perfect themselves. There is no external force that can tell the US that it's wrong, and actually do anything about it. The only reason anyone listens to the UN is because the US military backs it up. We're not going to start bombing ourselves.

If someone thinks the US will put its own institutions on trial and high level people in jail, then they would believe that the US is exceptional. If someone can think the US would be exceptional in that way, then someone can just as easily think that the US is the exception when it comes to committing acts of torture, in that we can.

Why is it excusable when the CIA does it? Because there is no objective morality. Might has always made right.

[99Forever]

7. Cuz...

REASONS dammit. We're fuckin' Murica. How dare you question that. What, you some kinda turriest or what?

[LondonReign2]

8. Why do you hate Obama?

[Orrex]

9. Seriously?

Because Hitler was evil, but the CIA is protecting our freedom.

Duh.

[sabrina 1]

10. I think there are many people in our government, and have been for a long time,

Cheney comes to mind, who admire the Nazis. How they ever got a foothold in this country is another question.

We spout one thing and do another.

There's money in the torture business also, and so long as those being tortured are poor and powerless from 'foreign' nations, they can be dehumanized and therefore of no consequence.

No matter how much people object to the comparisons to Hitler's Germany, they cannot be denied.

I'm sure the German people at that time, much like the American people now, supported the use of torture for 'National Security' purposes.

[Octafish]

11. Because not NAZIs.

Even when we act it.