Poll: Americans approve of GTMO detainee treatment
Today, the results from a Rasmussen Poll on American public opinion concerning GTMO will be released. When asked about their opinion of the treatment of detainees at GTMO, 34% agreed with the statement that the treatment was "about right", and 36% agreed with the statement that the treatment was "better than they deserve".
posted by elendil at 6:34 pm
3 Comments:
As long as "us" and "them" is clear cut (brown vs white; Christian vs Muslim), that will probably remain the same :/
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I do not think it is racism as such - just the grand assumption that people being tortured are already guilty. This need not apply to Iraqi's - a lot of people assume that someone is guilty of crimes in our own country when they are charged. Even when found innocent, people's lives are often destroyed from being charged with a crime. Despite the important legal base of 'innocent until proven guilty', which (to my understanding) is part of the reason Shapelle is in trouble in Indonesia, it is not something that many believe in practice. Retribution can become more important than justice.
The other thing that I think plays into this situation is a lack of information in the people being surveyed. There are some scary views of Muslims around at the moment, thanks to a hysterical beatup based media and tragically bad political leaders that thrive on fear (with a couple of exceptions - see below). Most people do not understand torture either, in that they do not realise how horrific it is, or how useless it is for acquiring real evidence.
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2005/s1432393.htm
PETER BEATTIE: We've got to be careful we don't end up with some hysteria here. I mean, the Islamic community in Queensland are very positive, they're very decent people and the last thing they would ever support is terrorism. They don't do that...
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