This is a hard-hitting video of what standard operating procedures are like when force-feeding detainees at Guantanamo Bay. What this video makes clear is that Yasiin Bey is (a) able to get his hands free and (b) is able to stop the exercise. Those are unfortunately not the options that the gitmo detainees have.
The video was based on documents leaked to Al Jazeera.
What does this have to do with law, peace, or justice? Well, in the total absence of any of those things, there is a lot to learn. And it is a stark reminder of some of the worst things that human beings have done to human beings. The justification for institutions like Gitmo are that it makes America ‘safer’. And protects ‘Freedom’. It’s unclear how much ‘free-er’ or ‘safer’ we are, though. We are being asked to take it on faith that, some times, it is ok to do a ‘little bad’ for the ‘greater good’.
So, a thought experiment for the day: Are there any justifications (moral, factual, logical, religious or otherwise) that truly make these actions reasonable?
For example, had the US managed to arrest Osama bin Laden, and placed him in Gitmo, would that justify its existence, and the use of force-feeding?
Ask yourself, then watch the video again.
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(Photo courtesy of Banksy, via the internet)
The Law, Justice, and Peace Diary 