We tarnish the shining ideals we say we honor and protect as Americans when we allow our government and military to torture and murder suspects in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo. This barbaric treatment of suspects is what you expect from desperate totalitarian regimes and police states, not the richest, most powerful and securest nation on the planet. We frequently portray ourselves as the champion of what is right and just, but when we feel the least bit threatened we become as ugly as the nations we demonize. We have in many respects become the terrorists ourselves, rounding up suspects and slowly beating them to death. It is unimaginable to me that any compassionate, free-thinking American citizen would not cry out for justice and for an abolishment of such heinous practices.
