Nausea at Torture

Re: Report Details Torture at Secret Baghdad Prison
Author: Sam Dagher

To the Editor:

“America is the symbol of democracy, but then you have the abuses at Abu Ghraib,” Mr. Maliki said. “The American government took tough measures, and we are doing the same, so where is the problem and why this raucousness?”

While I read this article, besides fighting back vomit I was pondering why someone would do anything like this. I cannot understand how a human being could torture another human being and sleep that same night. The horrors told of in this article make me sick to my stomach, so much so that recollecting them is painful. However, when I look at the above quote from the article, questions arise in my head. America truly is the symbol of democracy, but then why are we performing these acts? Maliki's claim, while broad, is truthful. America did abuse its detainees at Abu Ghraib, and maybe this spawned the idea for such treatment in the Baghdad prison. If America truly is the symbol of democracy, we need to get our act together and shape up, so that we are not encouraging this kind of horrendous, pointless torture.