[5-12-04]

FaithfulAmerica.org is "an online community for people of faith who want to build a more just and compassionate nation." It has issued one very good, brief statement of this issues arising from the actions of the US military in Iraq.

Dear Faithful American,

Faith is universal. It knows no borders, no skin color, no ideologies. Through faith, we see God in each other, and grow to know and love one another as children of God. Recently, some of our soldiers in Iraq failed to recognize that their Iraqi prisoners were also God's children, and we are now bearing the pain of their inhumanity.

But these horrible, disturbing pictures are only the beginning. We now know there are hundreds more pictures and video; of rape, severe beatings, a smiling soldier posing next to a dead prisoner. The author Michael Ignatieff has written that we will know we have been defeated in the war on terror when we no longer recognize ourselves. Do we recognize ourselves in these images?

Even worse, these were not "bad apple" cases. Since 9/11, the US has created an archipelago of torture and illegal detention across the world. Go to http://www.faithfulamerica.org/Tortureinfo.htm to see our fact sheet. According to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Red Cross, and others, the Iraqi abuses were part of an intentional, systemic and illegal pattern in Iraq, and in the war on terror.

Those who created this system, as well as those who implemented it, have broken the law. A Special Prosecutor should be empowered to search for accountability at every level of the government, and challenge a culture of lawlessness based on a "rules don't apply to us" attitude.

Brutalities committed against American citizens do not justify brutality on our part. If we cannot demonstrate a higher morality, what has our nation to offer to the Iraqi people?

Please click below to send a fax to your representatives in the House and Senate asking them to call for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate US use of torture. http://www.faithfulmajority.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=10167

The torture committed in our name is often "outsourced". In Iraq, interrogations are handled by private mercenary companies paid by the US. In Afghanistan, the US trades prisoners with brutal local warlords who torture them for information. Across the rest of the world, the Washington Post has reported that the CIA regularly sends prisoners to countries like Syria and Uzbekistan to be tortured, in a practice called "rendition."

The experts say torture does not work. We know that torture loses hearts and minds, and payback escalates conflict. But these are not the reasons to refrain. We don't torture because it is the ultimate betrayal. It violates ourselves, dishonors our country, betrays our children. It changes who we are, beyond recognition.

FaithfulAmerica.org is an online community for people of faith who want to build a more just and compassionate nation. It provides one-click opportunities to impact current political issues and shift the terms of public debate. It aspires to be an online wing of a powerful, new progressive faith movement, like the ones that fought for independence, abolition and civil rights. Join us today!