A U.S. District Judge not only doesn't know what torture is, she doesn't know her own history.
Judge Rosemary M. Collyer doesn't know what people have known for decades, if not centuries: force-feeding is torture. Force-feeding is torture. In fact, Judge Collyer wouldn't be sitting where she is today if dozens of American (and British) women hadn't been tortured in this way in their fight for the right to vote. Women were maimed and died because of force-feeding.
But ignorance is popular, and Judge Collyer is apparently trying to win a popularity contest:
The stupid -- it burns.“There is nothing so shocking or inhumane in the treatment of petitioners — which they can avoid at will — to raise a constitutional concern that might otherwise necessitate review,” she wrote.Collyer also found that the detainees had not shown that the military’s policy is “unreasonable.”
Watch this video clip, Judge Collyer, and then come back and tell me "there is nothing so shocking or inhumane in the treatment."
My friend Tarak Kauff is on a fast in solidarity with the Guantanamo prisoners. He's trying to bring attention to their plight. Tarak has lost 24 pounds and looks like a ghost.
Do most Americans care? Do they give a shit about the torture that's going on in their names?
No.
They, too, are happy to parade their brutality and ignorance.
Some day, there will be a reckoning.
