This morning's New York Times has an important story detailing the case of Donald Vance, who, while working at an Iraqi security firm, became suspicious of his employer and passed info to the FBI. The company was raided--due to information Vance had passed--but since he happened to be at the company at the time, Vance was captured by U.S. forces, imprisoned and tortured--I'm sorry, I meant "interrogated"--for 97 days.
His captors had no clue. Vance was a Navy vet, but this was never discovered. Instead, he was "interrogated" through intimidation, told repeatedly that they had information connecting him to any manner of nefarious but imaginary plots, shown reams of made-up evidence. In other words, they were holding a prisoner for no reason whatsoever--the very thing Our President says is not, could never happen.
And Vance, since his skin is white and he does not pray to Mecca, almost certainly had it better off than the average Iraqi prisoner. (People in charge of these things swear there is no racism in the military, and you almost have to admire their ability to say it with a straight face.) If this is how we treat American citizens working in Iraq, people with names that should have been easily found in a database, imagine how we're treating men, women and children who just happen to be standing by when a raid is conducted, when a roadside bomb goes off, whenever the hell we feel like it.
I say "we" because, let's face it, every day this goes on, all of us our responsible. Obviously, I didn't vote for Bush, but did I do all I could to prevent his reelection? Am I storming the barricades, am I carrying signs, am I marching? Are you? Is anyone?
Or are we doing what most Americans do, ignoring it as best we can, trying to get on with our lives, and wondering why the blood never seems to wash out of our hands?
