"I think Americans need to realize how easily they can be led and lied to..."

I know that it's easier for people to just love their country and to never, ever question the judgment of their elected leaders.

I know it's easier to just pretend that everything's okay, that the government always knows what's best for its citizens; it's easier to simply not think too hard, to deny that anything bad could be going on behind the scenes; to trust that the people on TV are telling the truth all of the time. I realize that people don't WANT to think about uncomfortable, disturbing issues. They just want to live their lives and pursue their own version of the American Dream, or whatever.

"Let’s say this slowly: the Bush administration wanted to use 9/11 as a pretext to invade Iraq, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So it tortured people to make them confess to the nonexistent link."
-- Paul Krugman (link)

I browse the stories on Reddit frequently, and came across this discussion about the Bush administration's use of torture to interrogate. The article it referenced was very brief, but the resulting comment thread on the Reddit page is worth reading and pondering.

This comment in particular:

It's a bit hard to say, "We're better than those guys," when we do similar shit.

It may not be the worst of the worst, but seriously, it's still disgraceful. It taints everything else. Just because we aren't skinning them alive or burning them half to death doesn't mean it's OK.

I think Americans need to realize how easily they can be led and lied to. Wave a little war flag over their heads, shout "USA USA" a few times, wear a nice suit on a flight deck, and they eat it up and shut up. They shout down anyone who says, "Hey guys, we might want to look at this a little closer..." as being "unpatriotic" or "unAmerican". Later on, when they wake up from the patriotic masturbation fantasy, they wonder, "Wow, that was kinda stupid. Someone should have been doing something about that..."

Well yes, people were. But they were being ignored, or called names, or lambasted for being "pinheads" or whatnot.

The sad thing is that it'll happen again. And again. And again. It's human nature. :(
(link)

Well-said.

And I think we need to keep an eye on EVERYBODY who gets elected to public office, whether we personally voted for them or not.

And we need to wake the fuck up and realize that certain acts against human beings are wrong, even if they ARE the enemy.