Madam, – George W Bush should be tried before an international court of justice. We don’t know what he thought about internment without trial in Ireland, yet we do know that many of his fellow countrymen rightly objected very strongly to it. What will they have to say about his recent pride in attempting to justify support for heinous acts of torture on kidnapped citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan (World News, November 10th)?
Yes, years after the reaction to our internment without trial, citizens from Iraq and Afghanistan were being kidnapped, perhaps blindfolded, transported by air across the world to find themselves disorientated and deposited in the Guantánamo prison in Cuba. There, many of them were subjected to all manner of vile and degrading treatment. According to the former US president, he was assured that “waterboarding” was “not illegal”. Who gave him such advice? As a means of attempting to elicit information, lack of awareness and blind ignorance may be added to his indictment.
Far from obtaining valuable information to keep us all secure, it is much more likely that the terrified persons subjected to such horrendous experience would have been so confused that they might well, in a state of intense panic, have given utterly false and bizarre information in the hope of receiving some respite.
The distinguished Irish Timesjournalist, Lara Marlowe mentions that this torture was used 183 times on one victim. Either his answers were judged unsatisfactory or the sadists were enjoying the experience. Mr Bush suggests that this form of barbaric treatment is keeping us secure. It is not! We in Ireland know only too well the lethal and destructive consequences of long-living folk consciousness. Mr Bush's action and attitudes will bring ignominy, insecurity and bitter prejudice to bear on our future generations.
The former president of the United States has used the removal of Saddam Hussein from Iraq to justify retrospectively his invasion of that sorry and fragmented state, sadly with the former British prime minister in tow. Does he really believe that the killing and disabling of all those young US and UK service personnel can be retrospectively justified by the capturing and execution of a tyrant along with a few of his henchmen? There is little hope for humankind if the deaths, bereavement and disablement of those trapped in the Twin Towers had to be multiplied so many-fold in order to “achieve justice” for them and their families.
Finally, if all the invading forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan and Iraq and the finance which is being used up by two armies fighting an apparently unwinnable war against tribesmen and that money diverted singlemindedly to intelligence and security at home, would we not have a much better chance of peace and security in the long term? Or are more and more people to be killed to satisfy some misguided belief in “victory”? – Yours, etc,