On torture

Captain Saguaro, the Cuban Secret Police officer from the Graham Green’s novel “ Our Man in Havana” quotes, “There are people, who can be tortured and there are those, who cannot. Those, who can be tortured, know about it.”

In our times the Captain should run for Congress, so delightfully up to date is his philosophy. Boy, do we discuss the torture. Only Death and War are more popular. Big people, big words, lawyers, politicians, civilians, military. They all come on stage to discuss, legalize or even promote torture. Arguments are used, great language skills are exercised, literary skills are implemented. Big money is paid. In fact, all means are utilized, whatever people usually do when they want to do something really nasty and stupid, know what bastards they are, but just can’t help it. In other countries people in such cases used religious or ideological arguments. Here we use the freedom of speech. Good for us, really.
Maybe we should first understand what we are dealing with before we touch the subject. Next time some idiot comes out of the closet to “discuss” torture, maybe we should put him under the piercing light and ask the spectators to flog him with rubber hoses. One thing will happen for sure: he will immediately confess to anything we will ask him to. That is the primary problem with the torture, see: the tortured person confesses to anything, right or wrong. Thus it is useless as an interrogation tool anyway. It was proven so many times, by so many people, that maybe we should formulate a Law: Truth and Torture are incompatible.
This country is young. Young nations like adolescents do not feel the imminent danger. Other nations know the drill: though should not produce monsters among your own.
People who exercise torture in any form are mentally unstable murderers. If they are not stopped they spread like famine. Eventually they take over the power and then the Humanity has to cut out the cancer together with a lot of healthy tissue. We do not want to be that tissue. We should not endanger ourselves.
There should be a simple criteria on what the torture is. That is “anything uncomfortable, thee should not want to be thyself subjected to.”
Try the following on yourself when you have the chance:
· sitting under bright, hot light into your face for an hour.
· not going to the bathroom for a day.
· sitting still for a day
· standing still for a day
· have no water for a day
· sit in total darkness for a day
· sit naked in front of clothed people for a day
· stay handcuffed for a day
· not to sleep for three days
· see your child being tortured
· see your spouse being tortured
· hear and see other people tortured

If after at least one of those, you still consider torture an option, go shoot yourself. You are hopeless.

For those, who believe in the Saguaro’s’s mantra and think that they do not belong to the ones that can be tortured, think again. Rich European Jews were told by the Nazis that they would be given a safe passage to Switzerland with all their belongings. Trains were provided to transport them there and they bought tickets, some even first- class. But the last stop was not Geneva. It was Treblinka, where they all were killed. Think again will you, please.