July 17, 2006
Dear editor of the Walpole Times,
Recent letter writers to the Walpole Times have sharply criticized the Walpole Peace and Justice Group for protesting the Iraq war and for holding vigils against war and torture. The appalling war policies of the Bush administration and its treatment of detainees compel the Group to protest and hold vigils.
The Bush administration started the war with Iraq under the blatantly false pretenses that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that he was linked to al-Qaeda. Now as a tragic consequence, over 2,500 of our service men and women have been killed as well as 30,000 to 100,000 Iraqi civilians, and thousands more wounded. The war has resulted in the widespread destruction of the country’s infrastructure and has unleashed terrible sectarian violence. It has intensified anti-American feelings and has made Iraq into a breeding ground for terrorists. While Saddam Hussein was an evil ruler, this war was not the way to change Iraq. It has done more harm than good. Major religions leaders, including Pope Paul II, opposed it on the grounds that it did not meet the just war theory criteria.
The Bush administration continues to deny their accountability. They attribute not finding weapons of mass destruction to “intelligence failures”, while the reality is that they purposely manipulated the facts. Now they claim that the war was necessary to fight the “war on terror.” This claim is nonsense as Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Ironically it has now become a hot bed of terrorism.
In regard to torture, ALL TORTURE is morally wrong. The Bush administration continues to use legal technicalities and manipulations to justify policies that most of the world would consider torture. Documents released show that the abusive and degrading interrogation methods used at Abu Ghraib and other detention centers were wide spread. Although the Bush administration would like to blame the abuse problems on a few ‘bad apples,’ they are a result of high level policies from the top levels of government. Those policies include rendition, sending detainees to other countries where we know they will be tortured, and denying that detainees are covered by the Geneva Conventions.
Most of the world has condemned the Guantanamo Detention Center, where we have held detainees for years without charging them of crimes and giving them due process of law. Tragically three detainees have committed suicide out of desperation. The Supreme Court, in the recent Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld ruling, rebuked the Bush administration for its military tribunals and for violating international treaties like Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions that bans cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners. Late last year the U.S. Congress passed the McCain Amendment outlawing the torture of detainees. Appallingly, the Bush administration’s response was to issue a ‘signing statement’ which asserted Bush’s right, as President, to ignore the law if he deemed it necessary to fight the war on terrorism. This assertion undermines the power of the Congress and condones the use of torture which should always be unacceptable.
The purpose of the Walpole Peace and Justice Group’s peace vigils is to bring attention to the Bush Administration policies and their impact. Sadly, our press often abdicates its duty to examine and question these policies. The shameful actions of the Bush administration in regard to the treatment of detainees contradict our country’s most basic values and undermine our moral authority. The Walpole Peace and Justice Group supports our troops in Iraq and their families. The best way to help our troops is to get them out of Iraq as soon as reasonably practical.
Philip Czachorowski
Walpole, MA
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