Monday, August 14, 2017

"The Dark Side" by Jan Mayer, Published in 2008

John Quincy Adams said "America should go not in search of monsters to destroy......She might become the dictatress of the world: she would no longer be the the ruler of her own spirit". "He who does battle with monsters needs to watch out lest he be in the process of becoming a monster himself. And if you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss will stare right back at you". (Friedrich Nietzsche, in Beyond Good and Evil).

The pages of this book at Lakeview Library are stiff indicating that this book has never been read. I regret I didn't read it sooner. My thinking about the use of torture has fluctuated. At one time I wrote that "if someone who held my loved one captive but would not say where, I would use any means to get that person to say where". I still believe that; however, this author details things that indict our country with using torture on those who were captured but should have been treated as agreed on in the Geneva Concord signed by hopefully, civilized nations.

Abu Ghraib is not OVERALL a tribute to our country. But most of us know that many released from captivity, went right back into terrorism killing innocents and infidels. (Guantanamo Bay)

Heavy reading but worthwhile.

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