Unless you’ve been under a rock, haven’t read, watched or heard the news, then you know about the torture that U.S. soldiers have been inflicting on Iraqi prisoners. Despite what you’re being led to believe, the torture and inhumane actions against our fellow human beings is not isolated to Abu Ghraib prison. The abuse is widespread and routine. The Bush administration would love you to believe that by prosecuting the soldiers that have appeared in some of the photographs you’ve undoubtedly seen, they will get rid of the problem. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Again, these acts against humanity are not isolated and there are plenty of high-ranking officials who know the details.
To put it simply, the Iraqis that are imprisoned, no matter if their faces appear on playing cards or not deserve to be treated like humans. This isn’t an argument against punishing those who have committed crimes. This is about America adhering to the Geneva Conventions and American soldiers realizing what they are doing isn’t right. These are human beings. We’re doing a fine job of fueling the fire of hatred against America without all of the torture by soldiers. I realize there aren’t many people that will read this, but I write this in hopes that those few that do take a moment to do a little digging for the truth. You don’t have to dig far.
Daisaku Ikeda said in his most recent Peace Proposal, “I Believe there is a kind of progressive “root-rot” eating away at the depths of people’s understanding of what it means to be human - how we define ourselves and how we relate to those different from us. In a world trapped in cycles of terrorism and military reprisal, I feel it is vital to put the scalpel to the corrupt roots from with the spiritual malaise of our era stems. Only by mustering the courage to do this will we be able to breathe again the liberating winds of hope.”
