When a country is full of scared people, that is the time when the wolves, tigers, jackels and thieves take advantage. Like with the classic tale of Chicken Little. A single acorn drops on the head of a stupid chicken and next thing one knows the entire barn-yard is agaggle with panicky animals. Only human animals are dangerous when they are afraid. They are likely to forget that they are human. The world of animality is a world of brutality; A world that forget's it is human. A world where it is entirely possible for supposedly civilized people to act like Brutes. And that is why it is all the more important during times of crises to remember that we create civilizations....

....That for all the fear that we feel, compared to a real "fin de sicle" event, the attacks of 9/11 were an acorn. More importantly, when a threat is real one has to correctly identify where it is coming from and how to meet it.

One response that does not past muster is the panic response; the Brute response; the tribal response. Reports of "detainees' being beaten and choked and having lit cigarettes placed in their ears" are not funny. They are not acceptable behavior. They are not an appropriate response. And they are no way to resist Islamic fundamentalists. For the US to openly embrace policies based on brute force and repression in our foreign policy is to set us up to use brute force and recession at home. And that is why these things need to be stopped.

These behaviors are clear and simply criminal. The FBI is coming public with these accusations because they are accusations of illegal behavior that has nothing to do with professional interrogations and law enforcement. They know that the American people, and our leaders, have to recognize that not only do these kinds of behaviors not work; for all the neo-Nazi Berretta, Rambo and Terminator films to the contrary, they don't even get results. One cannot touch evil without it contaminating the hand that touches. A "Berretta" with his gun shooting "bad guys" is apt to eventually become a bad guy himself; perhaps shooting his own wife eventually. The way of anger is a bad way. It is not patriotism, it is prelude to fascism. It is not law enforcement, it is law-breaking.