Bound (and waterboarded) for Justice

A recent article in the Huffington Post has pointed out that the systematic interrogation of terror suspects and detainees at places like Guantanamo Bay and CIA black sites using "enhanced interrogation techniques" has been deemed torture by an independent investigation. The Constitution Project has pointed the finger of responsibility for this lapse in integrity at senior officials throughout the Bush administration, as there was a press to do "whatever necessary" to keep the country safe after 9/11, even in the face of denying the ideals America tends to pride itself on. The key arguments the task force has put forth revolve around the use of smoke and mirrors like euphemistic language used by the U.S. government to cover up their own acts of torture, and the hypocrisy of doing so while condemning other nations for human rights violations that were close if not the same.  The release is also something of a rebuke to the Obama Administration's calls to move forward rather than dwell on the past and furthermore pushing the administration by being "critical of some Obama administration policies, especially what it calls excessive secrecy." The investigation further calls for an end to indefinite detention at places like Guantanamo Bay, and with the exceptions of Richard Epstein and Asa Hutchingson (two authors on the project) there was an overall agreement that the detainment center should be closed by 2014.

This could certainly be called a dark chapter in the history of the United States of America, and the recent bombing in Boston certainly smacks of what kicked our need for "homeland security" into high gear. But what we have here is a detailing of why aggressive policies that seek a sort of preemptive strike against insurgency can never work. In its zeal to find a satisfying close to the war on terror and ensure the safety of its citizens, instead the U.S. began dropping rights from the people through unconstitutional legislative spyware like the PATRIOT Act and a sudden zest for extraordinary renditions that often accompanied tortures and forced feedings. The U.S. is no longer the shining city on the hill Reagen conjured in the minds of the people when we allow ourselves to sink into the mire of suspended rights and no judicial oversight. The sword and the scales are the tools of lady justice, but as we've moved her blindfold onto the eyes of the people, we see that the use of the sword only fulfills itself; the fastest way to create a terrorist is to treat him like one and above all giving him a reason to hate America.