Why do we need torture?

For a while I didn't really care. I think I was like most Americans. We didn't care that the Bush Administration wanted to use torture against those pesky terrorists. The terrorists were out to destroy us, right?

But then I've been thinking about it more - torture & Guantanamo. What is going to happen to the people suck there? At first it was fine - we needed information to fight the war. But why does he want to keep bugging those guys stuck in that Cuban prison? How many years have they been there? And they have total isolation - no letters from family. I keep thinking of the family back in Afghanistan that has no clue about where little johnny is. Let them just go home. Do they really have to serve a life sentence for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

And then the military tribunals - what a joke. The defendants don't hear evidence against them. They don't get lawyers. They cannot confront those accusing them. I would think it better to not have a court than to have such a farce.

When did we Americans start to stoop so low? Bush has been dragging us down. I know - this is nothing new. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but what if we get another NeoCon in office? How can we as individuals stop this alarming trend of destroying American values in the name of security.

Then, I have yet to see torture work. When a man is under duress, he just says what the torturer says to say. Valuable information is rarely obtained. Just forced confessions. More than a tool to elicit data, torture is a weapon to inflict fear upon a population. Current we are using it against the terrorists, but when will we shift to start using it against internal terrorists?

We say that can't happen, but Bush has already received permission to declare anyone an enemy combatant. Once an Enemy Combatant, the person loses all rights of a citizen. No trial, no habeus corpus, no contact with one's family, no lawyers... just a quick trip to Gitmo where torture is allowed.

The torture has got to stop. Habeus Corpus must be restored. We need to speak to our representatives - let them know that this isn't acceptable, under any condition. That we are civilized, not savage. We understand and respect human rights - even of those that do not respect ours. We are better than the terrorist and we need to live that way.