Torture, Insanity and George Walker Bush

Prisoners held at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba are being driven insane by a tightening of conditions and the situation of their indefinite detention without trial, according to lawyers and rights activists involved with the US camp.

Which just goes to show you don't have to be a prisoner of war in a fake war to be driven insane by the wit and wisdom of George Walker Bush.

And "tightening of conditions?" What? Did they cancel Charlton Heston movie night?

Give me a break. We have the PATRIOT Act, domestic spying, signing orders and a new season of American Idol coming up. If that's not enough to drive you insane on so many levels, then surely the notion of another two years of the morbidly hysterical presidential stylings of George Walker Bush is the straw to break any camel's back.

I feel great sympathy for the tortured victims of crimes against humanity which are suffered in the prison camps of Guantanamo Bay. I do. Really. I've seen the Road to Guantanamo.

But insanity is pretty serious don't you think. If you're driven insane by water-boarding, sleep deprivation and listening at extreme decibels to the inane blathering of Joseph Lieberman, or driven insane by endless circular, neo-con double-think, tragedian vainglory and egregious state-sponsored slapstick murder and mayhem – in the end, whether from one means or another; you're still insane, right?

So, I feel for people caught up in a dragnet of fear, ignorance and malevolence and punished for crimes of which they're innocent. I do.

But what about the couple hundred million Americans or so, who are so befuddled and betwixt by following the Bush labyrinth of illogic, unreason and biblical disaster, that all one can do is sit in front of the TV with a remote in one hand, a highball dribble glass in the other, mystery meat in the microwave, reclined at a 90 degree lazy-boy angle, and fall asleep to the soothing sounds of get-rich-quick infomercials.

In a world of insane prison inmates on an island of escapist entertainment; Papillon is King.

And remember, if you don't feel insane yourself: Sanity is proved by an admission of insanity. So the chances are if you think you're sane, the probabilities are you're not.

And seriously, hasn't the maladministration of George Walker Bush entered into such a realm of dark Fellini-esque surrealism, that to take even the most innocent, simple utterance from the Bush regime seriously is to prove one's insanity?

Fool me once...

Brent Mickum, a defence lawyer, says one of his two clients, Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi-born UK resident, "is slowly but surely slipping into madness" because of "prolonged isolation coupled with environmental manipulation that includes constant exposure to temperature extremes and constant sleep deprivation". He says his ration of toilet paper was removed because he used it for shielding his eyes from the light and his prayer rug was taken away because he used it for warmth.

Okay, well, that would drive me insane too, I guess; sleep deprivation, chill cold and no toilet paper. Especially the toilet paper. I need lots of toilet paper because I don't like to get my hand too close to my stinking dirty ass.

So yeah, these guys aren't going insane because they are weak; they are dealing with some serious shit. I appreciate that, I do, but what about us, we Americans, driven insane by George Bush to the degree that all we can do is sit there and watch with our mouths agape in shock and awe as Bush dazzles us with his genius for denial and penchant to sound peevish about the weather.

I mean, come on, back in the day, Americans were all Missourians. We were proud when we'd spot a charlatan a mile away; smug we weren't gypped out of our hard earned cash by a snake oil salesman.

And now look at us.

There has to be a sucker born every minute in world run by shysters, grifters and prevaricators dressed in flags, hyperbole and a smile.

They hung Mussolini from a lamppost.

Bush owns a ranch in Paraguay.

Sane people hang their dictator from a lamppost. The insane nod their heads and say, "Paraguay; it must be nice. Ah, well, it's the American Way, I guess."

Attorneys representing other prisoners say their clients kept in isolation are going insane.

Copy-cat insanity. Pretty soon, they'll all claim torture can drive a person insane.

Maybe they were insane before they were taken prisoner. Huh? Did you ever think about that? Maybe they were driven insane by war, poverty, grief, anger and hate before they were sold to the Americans by war lords, family feuds or bad luck.

Wimps.

Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, says the five years of the Bush administration’s detention policy and related practices may have "done more to reverse 200 years of democracy than any other government act in US history".

Well, good, then we can start over again and this time without slavery, inequality and that bad period of time when robber barons and monopolists ran everything.

No, we can finally have a government of, by and for the people.

Who are you calling insane?

The Pentagon said the detention of enemy combatants was in general "not criminal in nature, but to prevent them from continuing to fight against the US in the war on terror".

huh?

I can certainly understand if you are resistant to the idea that you have been driven insane by George Walker Bush. If it gets out, your job maybe in jeopardy and you might be reported to the Department of Homeland Security.

There is societal stigma attached to people who have been driven nuts by abuse, heartbreak and lack of support. We may feel sorry for a crazy person, but they're still crazy right?

We have come a long way in tolerance and diversity, but there are some limits. People who talk to themselves, wave their hands all around and throw things at the TV screen when the President gives a speech, can't be allowed near sharp instruments or permitted to go on CNN.

So, yes, it is a crime and shame and a tragedy what has befallen the torture cadets at Camps Delta and X-ray, I feel pain and horror and embarrassment for their plight, but as my great-grandma Bella used to say; charity begins at home.

What about us? What about our problems? What about how we have been driven insane by an evil so evil that evil denies kinship?

Before 2000, I was sane. And now I am clearly insane. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why.

There is no worse torture than suffering through the presidency of George Walker Bush.


Crossposted from My Left Wing