Monday, May 11, 2009

Stalag XVII-B, Revisited

"You just kicked the shit out of an innocent man."
"Innocent? Innocent of what?"
~ Gene Hackman explains his style of policing from the film Unforgiven.

Remember the film Stalag 17? One of the techniques the Nazis use is Sleep Deprivation. Watch the scene. In it Von Scherbach also declares Lieutenant Dunbar is not a prisoner of war. Strange how much Ari "Sleep Deprivation, I have no Problem with" Flesciher resembles Von Scherbach and not Otto Preminger.

The CIA was granted the authority to keep captured enemies shackled and awake for days. Detainees were clad only in diapers and not allowed to feed themselves. A prisoner who started to drift off to sleep would tilt over and be caught by his chains, according to the report.

What anti-american terrorist loving fucks those movie producers were in the Fifties. Of course, I don't know what to do with prisoners of war. But do we really need to further dehumanize them?

My strongest ire is held for those who craft such policies and then sit back at a distance never having to dirty their hands. Those who chickened out when they were younger, those who deferred their military service, yet in latter days became Hawkmen. The men and women who have to carry out the orders and are tasked with sifting through the excrement and filth are the ones who become most damaged. For they are the ones we torture too. We allow their humanity to be stripped as they work to deprive another of theirs.

This is a supreme tragedy of war.

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