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Anthony Wade – http://www.opednews.com/ May 24, 2005
How much is enough America? How much is enough before we stand up
collectively and say, “No more”. America has become sedated, tranquilized by
a corporate media that keeps the truth from coming to light on an everyday
basis. Anesthetized to the point that when the vilest acts perpetrated in the
war on terror are being carried out by us, we just flip the channel to see if
we can see who is left on American Idol. What has happened to our collective
conscience when in latter day America we spend more time worrying about the
freak show that is the Jackson trial then what atrocities are being committed
in our name.
That is right America; this war is fought in your name, my name, and the
names of every other citizen who resides in this country. Do you even
remember why? Do you care anymore? Tens of thousands of people have died,
over 1,600 of our own and do you even remember why? Does their blood scream
out to you, as it does to me, as an American, as a Christian, as a human?
If not, then maybe the latest story out of Afghanistan will shake our
collective conscience. You remember Afghanistan don’t you? That was where
this great war started. We were told it was where the big bad guy, bin Laden
was. As it turns out, as soon as we had him surrounded, we let him go. We
continued though to bulldoze through the country and install our puppet
government in the name of democracy. The reality was a little more stark, as
this resulted in the return of Afghanistan is the world’s chief supplier of
heroin. That aside, we were told that Afghanistan was a great example of the
success of the war on terror. The real terror however, has been going on
after the great victories.
As reported this week, on Friday, there was another incident of prisoner
abuse that resulted in the deaths of two suspects. These reports usually
break on Friday, so the media can ignore them and then switch subjects come
Monday. Just another shot of anesthesia for the American populace. The deaths
are not only disgusting, but they now represent what we have become, what our
legacy is.
Mr. Dilawar was a quiet man with a wife and daughter who was simply in the
wrong place at the wrong time. The place was Afghanistan and the time was
during the Bush Wars. Driving his taxi past a base used by American troops,
Camp Salerno, which had been the target of a rocket attack that morning; was
his undoing. In a land dominated by an unrelenting foreign power, us, Mr.
Dilawar was promptly picked up for interrogation. His crime was DWA, driving
while Afghani. Mr. Dilawar was not an imposing man, standing only at 5 foot
nine inches and weighing 122 pounds. That mattered not to his captors, us,
who immediately labeled him as non-compliant. Apparently non-compliant is not
a label you want in a U.S. prison in Afghanistan.
His torture started with over 100 strikes to his legs in a 24 hours period,
while he was shackled standing up. Three days later, he began his fourth
interrogation. His hands were slapped back up every time they fell below his
head. They were falling of course because of the beatings and shackled
positions he had been forced to endure for the past three days. He was
violently shoved against a wall multiple times, because he could not sit in a
chair as instructed by his tormentors, us. Of course he could not sit because
of the state of his legs, battered over 100 times in a day. After 15 minutes
of this, he was so weak he could not get up so they stood him up. It was then
that the Sergeant stepped back and kicked him fiercely in the groin.
Seemingly unsatisfied by this “interrogation”, the Sergeant then instructed
them to leave the battered Mr. Dilawar chained to the ceiling with a black
hood over his head.
Soon, he was crying out for mercy when his captors investigated. He said he
needed to see a doctor because of his legs. The attending MP said he was ok
and just trying to get out of his restraints. The next morning began his
final interrogation. Mr. Dilawar was incoherent. The treatment was similar.
He was beaten some more, choked with his black hood, and all in the name of
you an I. By that time the next day, God had granted Mr. Dilawar the peace
his captors, us, refused to give him for so many days. There was zero intelligence
gathered and it appears the man had done nothing wrong.
The autopsy confirmed that death was cause by the blunt trauma to his legs
which in the word of one of the coroners, were basically pulpified. Did you
get that America? They beat this 122 pound man in his legs so badly that the
tissue turned into pulp. The coroner compared the injuries to someone getting
run over by a bus.
Mr. Dilawar was one of two murdered prisoners from that prison at that time.
I will not review the horrific details of the other, except to say that it is
no less violent and no less despicable. Most of the troops working there had
decided that Dilawar was innocent before the final interrogation that took
his life. They killed him anyway. They killed him in your name. They killed
him in my name. By God, they killed him in Christ’s name and that is what has
to stop.
George Bush goes to great lengths to tell us about his Christianity. Some say
it is what clinched the last election for him. Jesus Christ is the Prince of
Peace, not war. I have read the Bible and did not come across the word
pulpify. There is nothing Christian about this war. Yet Pastors all over this
country support this man and his policies of death and torture. It has to
stop.
We were told that these wars are to protect us. Bush has done a masterful job
of connecting two countries that have little to do with terror and making
them the central point for his wars. The only thing that made Afghanistan
central to terror was Osama bin Laden and he has not been there since we
first got there and let him escape. Iraq had nothing to do with it at all and
thousands have died because of nothing. In your name.
How much will be enough for you? Monday will bring a new day and a new
opportunity for the media to ignore this story, which should be the only
story. There will be a new witness in the Jackson fiasco. There will be more
developments in the nuclear showdown in the Senate. Even if they manage to
get around to it, will they simply tell us more fairy tales of bad apples?
How many Lyndie England’s will it take to make you say no more? How many more
Charles Graner’s will it take to break through this silence? How many more
before we all realize it is not a couple of bad apples but the farmer that is
to blame. When you draft memos designed to render the Geneva Convention
“quaint”, you are the root cause of the bad apples. When you outsource
torture you are the primary cause of the bad apples. When you invade
countries that have nothing to do with terrorism and ally with countries that
support it, you are the only cause of the bad apples. You are the bad apple.
Bush will continue to make grand speeches that defy the very facts that are
occurring every day. His media machine will support it, and keep giving you
the sedatives you are used to. Somewhere in a poor country that we have
annihilated though, someone else will be killed in your name. They will be
killed in my name. Where is the outrage? Why is there nothing but silence?
Will there be any outrage for a country that pretends to act in the cause of
morality but behaves with no morality guiding it? Will there be any outrage
for a President that claims to talk to God and then perpetrates such blinding
evil upon mankind? Will there be any outrage that our media has sold us out?
Will there be any outrage for Mr. Dilawar, a 122 pound innocent taxi driver
from Afghanistan, murdered in your name, for the cause of freedom. Or will
there just be more of this insufferable silence.
Anthony Wade, a contributing writer
to opednews.com, is dedicated to educating the populace to the lies and
abuses of the government. He is a 37-year-old independent writer from New
York with political commentary articles seen on multiple websites. A
Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation Counselor working with
the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that you can have faith and hold
elected officials accountable for lies and excess.
Anthony Wade’s Archive:
www.opednews.com/archiveswadeanthony.htm
Last updated 27/05/2005
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