We can’t be silent about such behavior

The article on Mr. Taucher and his ordeal under Nazi rule was quite compelling (“Survivor tells his story,” Jan. 29). So was Mr. Taucher’s comment that people should “not … permit this to happen again.” Yet it is clear that similar actions (torture, humiliation and murder) are still occurring, especially at U.S. prison and incarceration facilities throughout the world. The idea of women interrogators wearing sexually titillating clothes, among other things, to demoralize prisoners is outrageous and appalling.

Humiliating and torturing prisoners is not just wrong because it might endanger U.S. servicemen and women or because it violates international agreements and laws, as well as domestic laws against torture. It’s wrong because torture is wrong, because inflicting cruel pain on defenseless, unarmed human beings, regardless of what terrible deeds they may have done, is wrong.

But the Bush administration doesn’t really care what I think, since I don’t support President Bush. So it is really incumbent upon the mainstream press, like The Herald, and upon Republicans, especially those who voted for Mr. Bush, to unequivocally and openly express their opposition to these practices, which are still going on today, and to demand that they be stopped. Otherwise, their silence equals complicity and approval. And, in essence, their silence would then indicate approval for what Mr. Taucher so sadly and eloquently talked about.

Roger A. Berger

Everett