Politics

The US army manual finally bans torture

---

---

---

why did it take so long?

A revised US Army Field Manual has been recently published which bans torture and the degrading treatment of prisoners. Banned procedures include forced nakedness, hooding and threatening prisoners with dogs. According to Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, it also explicitly bans beating prisoners, sexually humiliating them, depriving them of food or water, performing mock executions, shocking them with electricity, burning them, causing other pain and a technique called "water boarding" that simulates drowning…
The Prophet Rael made the following comments after the announcement of such a ban:
How is it possible that "the most advanced country on Earth", the "country of freedom", had to wait until 2006 to have such a guideline?
Another interesting question: will now the USA accept, like all other countries, to have its soldiers possibly judged by the International Court for Crimes against Humanity?
And finally, did they refuse until now to be liable to this court because they knew too well they were not respecting Human Rights?
In the last century, American forces have been involved in numerous conflicts, and of course, not having such a "guideline", were able to do terrible things... And in fact such a "guideline" was not needed as the USA was supposed to respect the Geneva Convention at the first place.
Now, an interesting map should be made showing countries where American had a positive image before Bush, and were American citizen were able to travel without any risk, which was the majority of the planet , and the same map now, where it's totally the opposite. The US government website advising US tourists shows that, on a vast majority of the planet and in more and more countries, there is a warning to US tourists to adopt a low profile and avoid some places. What a contrast! The American tourists who before could enjoy being welcome almost everywhere on this planet see now the number of countries they can visit safely, shrinking more and more! Winning hearts and minds?

---