President Obama: 1st step back to USA dignity

Congratulations on the closing of Gitmo declaration and the statement that the military should never torture and instead stick to what they are supposed to, which is the Army field manual. These steps are a first step back to dignity, morality and decency, after years of having gone far over the edge.

To those new to this subject or my blog, follow the "torture" label to my post of February, 2007 (yes, two years ago) on this subject, explaining that "we need the information" scenarios are fallacious "justifications" for torture as a policy.

Now the American people, especially the media, need to understand that torture is never a "tool," it is always a mental disorder and one of the signs of the warping of the human soul. Thus it is not "entertainment." I was disgusted to see torture quickly glamorized in early episodes of "Lost" (you know, the dark hero Iraqi Republican guard character 'had' to try torture because they 'needed' the information). I never watch "24" but understand it has much in it about torture, thus mainstreaming it as entertainment.

I don't even need to point out that the glut of violent slasher films have all polluted a generation of young and older viewers into seeing torture as entertainment.

Torture is a sign of humanity's great potential for depravity. Some of it results from mental disorders, as you see in criminally insane cases. The other potentiality for torture resides in the reservoir of the darkness that almost every human is capable of (witness the experiments where the subjects will happily torture people using electrical shocks for absolutely no reason whatsoever). With the potential for torture within humans they have absolutely no reason to crow about how evolved, enlightened or "clear" they are.

The elimination of torture as entertainment is a critical next step. In the meantime, congratulations to President Obama for being a man of his word and decency.