America does not torture?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5395830/Abu-Ghraib-abuse-photos-show-rape.html

[quote]Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape'Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged. At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.[/quote]

This article is very important. The reason it's important is in part because it shows what happened in Abu Ghraid and in part confirms what many of already knew about the allegations of rape. There have been allegations of rape for men, women, and children. Some sites a few years back showed video of rapes, though some videos may have been false, many others are believed to have been real.

This has been a disgusting and disgraceful time in American history and it's a time I am sure many would like to forget and sweep under the rug, but if you do that, doesn't that make you just as monstrous as Germany when they tried to cover up a lot of the Atrocities after WWII? They lied about a lot of what had happened and tried to cover it up.
I watched Obama stand before a group of Congress and declare that America does not torture.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24444553.htm

[quote]"Living our values doesn't make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger. And that is why I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture," Obama said.[/quote]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r23oHpgMJg

I watched them stand up and clap in regards to this speech. I think most people like and respect Obama, but to say that just hit me. When I saw the speech I was thinking does he mean right this moment as he is saying it? Does he mean they have never tortured? I couldn't help but think about all the Targeted Individuals men, women and children that were getting burnt in their homes on a daily basis. Who are being tortured in America and other nations. I could not help but think about what I knew about the prison Camps Abu Ghraid and Guantanamo Bay.

About the pictures I had seen and some of the things that had gone on their, but here was this President, someone who America listens to and I think trusts, saying that America does not torture. How do you reconcile that? I know most countries would rather keep their dark deeds hidden, it's the nature of the beast. It took many years for them to even admit to and then finally apologize for other dark times in American history such as the Tuskegee experiments that they conducted on Black men in the south, but eventually they did apologise.

Living your values makes safer and stronger, but apparently those values involve living in a state of denial and I don't see how that can make anyone stronger. I think it would make you far stronger to step up to the plate as a nation admit fully what had happened, no holds barred and then apologise for it, and then let the nation start the healing process. Saying that there will be no torture under your administration does not change the past, and failing the victims, and not letting their abuse and tortures be known, still hurts and I daresay tortures them on a
psychological level, the same way not dealing with slavery affected the America psyche for years down the line.

Germany is in many ways just now starting to recover from their Hitler time and have pride and love again for what Germany was, I just saw and article about that and I think it's good, because they have finally dealt with and acknowledged some of what happened during that time period.

What would the world be like in America now if people denied Slavery happened or said that it was not that bad? Well many Americans are still psychologically grappling with the legacy that left behind and when people try to brush it under the carpet, some get upset and offended, well is denying or not fully confronting the events of the last several years any better? Isn't it just as offensive to deny the extent to which torture happened? To try to brush it under the carpet?
I think America needs to heal for what happened, but I don't think America will heal by underplaying and denying what when on, just like slavery or any of your other dark past, you have to find a way as a nation to step up to the plate, take ownership and acknowledge what happened, then apologize and only then can you truly start to heal as a nation.

Most would like to forget what happened, but I don't think that will make you stronger or better in the long run, it's not a healing or a healthy mentality to have. After 9-11 you felt hurt, violated and so you lashed back, even though Iraq was not the enemy, you did what you thought would make you feel safe, but in the end violations were committed, grievous violations and to heal, that has to at some point in the American psyche has to be dealt with.