Torture: Moral Defeat ... WATCHING AMERICA

As a citizen of the United States, I recall some quotes on this issue of torture from Nobel Prize winning French writer Albert Camus: "I would like to love my country and still love justice ..."

... "In  fighting our enemies let us not come to resemble them." Camus was protesting the use of torture during the Algerian revolution by the French military.

But what if? What if torture works? Well, if it works for one side in these horrific conflicts, it will work for the other. Who WINS when both sides lose moral credibility?

What we don't get here in THE LAND OF THE FREE  is an adequate account of the terrorists' STORY. Are we to believe that they are just strange and nasty sub-human beings who are just murderous-suicidal in their pathological hatred for our WAY OF LIFE? In our news media accounts of the war on terrorism there is very little historical perspective.

My own "educated guess" is that modern terrorism under the banner of fanatical Islam is rooted in extreme cultural oppression. But dig a little deeper and you will discern the CLASS STRUGGLE as described by old Karl Marx way back in 1848. His fiery words still ring true: "Workers of the  World Unite!"

( published in La Croix ( France ) on Dec.10 , 2014 by Dominique Quinio)