Question:  What do the United States and Syria have in common?

Answer:  Both countries have shamefully engaged in torture.

There are so many things to be proud of when it comes to the United States, but sometimes it’s hard see the good because of our inability to confess our sin of torturing human beings and our unwillingness to promise that we will never torture again under no circumstances.  Torture is NEVER justified.  When we torture we become like those we torture.

“Syrian intelligence agencies are running torture centers across the country where detainees are beaten with batons and cables, burned with acid, sexually assaulted, and their fingernails torn out, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Tuesday.

The New York-based rights group identified 27 detention centers that it says intelligence agencies have been using since President Bashar al-Assad’s government began a crackdown in March 2011 on pro-democracy protesters trying to oust him.

Human Rights Watch conducted more than 200 interviews with people who said they were tortured, including a 31-year-old man who was detained in the Idlib area in June and made to undress.

‘Then they started squeezing my fingers with pliers. They put staples in my fingers, chest and ears. I was only allowed to take them out if I spoke. The staples in the ears were the most painful,’ the man told Human Rights Watch.

‘They used two wires hooked up to a car battery to give me electric shocks. They used electric stun-guns on my genitals twice. I thought I would never see my family again. They tortured me like this three times over three days.’”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/syria-crackdown-torture-accusations_n_1645103.html

I look forward to the day when I can watch July 4th fireworks confident the United States will never torture again.