|
|
 |
|
The
views expressed
on this page are soley those of the author and do not
necessarily
represent the views of County News Online
|
 |
From the Other Side of the Edge….
Gitmo Torture,
not so Bad, Compared to…..
By Joe Facinoli
What was the hardest decision that you ever had to make, in your whole
life?
Think about it for a minute, …no hurry.
Not which tie and suit to wear, to your boorish boss’ latest social
climbing dinner party.
Nor which college to send your lazy, C-student kid, in hopes he or she
might do better than grilling double cheeseburgers for the next 40
years.
And not whether to tell your partner that you’ve been madly in love
with someone else, for quite a while now, …before they find out on
their own.
No, think more life and death, …as in, no way out so pick your
poison.
Can’t go back, can’t go forward, and can’t stay where you
are.
Think “Sophie’s Choice”, but it’s just about you, and not which of your
children you’ll allow the Nazis to kill off. (If you
haven’t seen this one, stop reading and go straight to Netflix,
everyone alive should see it, and remember it.)
Nothing comes to mind??
Ok, then consider this one, …and while you’re at it, consider how these
people got to this point, and what you would do to the perpetrators of
this inhuman atrocity, …if given the chance.
Say you are on the 90th floor of a building which is engulfed in
flames, burning with such fierce intensity that everything around you,
…all the contents, the walls, and even the floors, were becoming
practically vaporized, with each passing minute.
You’ve clamored to the windows, along with hundreds of other office
mates and denizens of this huge structure, only to remember that you
are nearly one thousand feet above the ground, with no other way to
flee, from this monstrous inferno.
You are truly trapped, having no chance at a stairwell, the elevators
long since not working, and climbing to the roof no option either, with
flames and thick, billowing smoke exiting the openings on all the
floors above you.
Slowly, with excruciating agony, you realize that you have but two
choices here.
Wait for the uber-microwave-hot fire to enter this last bastion, and
let it melt away your skin in seconds, as quickly as all the furniture
around you had been eaten, and then be incinerated with all the others,
like so much kindling, or…..
Jump.
You think about toughing it out, trying with your last breath to make
it through, …thinking of family, and sweethearts, and all the years
ahead of you, and not to mention, …that suicidal, thousand foot drop,
waiting outside the window.
And then the fire, and that incredible, unbearable heat, comes so close
and so fast that your natural instincts for survival take over, and in
a forced instant you find you have but one choice now, …and that is not
a choice at all, …but you do it anyway, …and almost without
thinking.
You jump, …feeling free and safe for a brief moment, …but then you have
to think about this singular choice, which no one should ever have to
make, for the last ten seconds of your life, …knowing it will end
suddenly, on a barren concrete plaza below you, on an otherwise starkly
beautiful day, in Lower Manhattan.
In light of the Senate “Torture” report, which was released last week
by Sen. Diane Feinstein of California (that perfect nirvana of politics
and humanity), regarding the goings on at a certain facility (just a
few nautical miles south of Miami), which holds “detainees” thought to
have some connection to 9-11,
….a Question:
Which would be a more sub-humanly torturous course of action (as our
treatment of those “detained” has been depicted), ….
….the events which I have described above, or, …a few episodes of near
drowning, a week or so of sleep deprivation, and some forced anal
“feeding and re-hydration” ???
September 11, 2001.
The last day on earth for 2,996 human beings, who went to work that
day, having no idea it would be for the final time.
Including dozens, perhaps as many as 200, who chose to “fly” away from
this life, rather than being burned alive, by it.
Including 343 firefighters, and 72 cops, who were just doing their
jobs, which on this day, cost them lives.
And also 227 passengers and crew members on four ill-fated flights,
including one from Newark to San Francisco, which ended badly under a
field in southwestern Pennsylvania.
These last 40 brave souls, briefly and just as agonizingly, lived the
last moments of their lives in a terror similar to that of the
“jumpers” in NYC, as their plane plummeted 30,000 feet, …going nose in,
to that field.
So then, …who exactly endured the most “torture” ??
Those completely unsuspecting folks who each suffered such a horrible
mental, emotional, and physical pre-death hell, …all for some faraway
and unknowable, socio-political and religious agenda?
Or those far less than human, despicable and vile ones, …who were
responsible for putting those innocent people through such anguish and
torment, ultimately fatal ????
A simple definition of the word, …makes for an ever so easy
answer.
We’re hearing a lot today, about lives that “matter”, and that all of
them should.
Well, I’m here to tell you, in my humble (but I’ll betcha I’m not solo
on this one), opinion, …that not all do.
Especially not those known to have caused the heinous deaths of
thousands, and who ruined the lives of tens of thousands more
“survivors”, and disrupted and drastically changed (and not for the
better) an entire country, ….AND who know how to get to others like
them, as well as just how we can stop this from ever happening to us,
or anybody, ever again.
Start taking body parts off, one by one, if that’s what it
takes. Drown the bastards, really, then go after the
next one’s family first, just like they would do, to get what’s
needed.
There is a time and a place for civility, and for having a conscience,
…and this isn’t one of them. The future of our
nation, and of our way of life, is at stake now, …and every, single,
day.
Feinstein and her cohorts, and any others who would call our guys’
actions at Guantanamo “abhorrent”, or uncivilized, because of their
wholly justified and effective methods of “information retrieval”, or
any who say that we are “better than that”, …are living a life of naïve
isolation and fantasy, and are operating in a world completely apart
from reality.
Even the Bible says “an eye for an eye”, and something about doing
what’s necessary, to protect one’s family and loved
ones. Don’t ask me for passages, …but it’s in
there.
The criticism, and certainly the prosecution, of any of the men who
worked over the Al Qaeda and other scumbags, who were stupid enough to
get caught, is completely insane.
Every country, every culture in history, has done some less than
humane, underhanded, and clandestine things best not seen nor talked
about in the light of day, …to continue, and to ensure, their
survival.
Hell, …that’s what the C.I.A. is (for the love of Jason Bourne and Jack
Bauer!), and has done every day, …for decades!
And we ARE “better than that”, because we are better than the others,
at it.
Of course we wanted retribution, but more importantly, we didn’t want
the country to have to endure another 9-11.
Did they use techniques that would have some among us cringing?
No doubt. Just listen to the
self-righteous wailing.
Did they do things that would have those perpetrators (legally accused,
or not) go through some temporary unpleasantness, some directed
discomfort, or even some “well-placed” suffering (or the odd,
occasional, slow and agonizing death)??
Probably.
And from where this heathen (but proud American, who looks upon in awe,
the work our brave guys and gals “on the line” do for us every day, in
service to their country) sits, ….I sure hope
so.
Joe Facinoli
--Joe can be reached at: joefacinoli@gmail.com
Intelligent Response Encouraged !!
© Copyright 2014, Joe Facinoli
|
|
|
|
