I guess it is possible to get used to anything. Seems that in incremental steps we can become numb or blind to things that by all rights should shock us silly. For instance ...

It’s clear to multitudes around the world that gory, nasty, ugly, cruel, inhumane acts of torture have been perpetrated by US citizens and that there has been an illegal war, carried out by the USA, some of its allies and many of its citizens.

Torture has been sanctioned by top echelons of the US government, which by definition, makes them war criminals. I hear that intelligence gathered through the use of torture is useless too. You think? I’d say anything at all to get someone from water-boarding my brain.

Many of us are convinced that war criminals remain free in the USA. Were it Russia or China doing the things that the USA has done, what would the USA be saying and doing?

And Obama? The Great Leader/Saviour? He who will deliver US from evil? He’d rather look forward than get all hung up on the past. He appears okay about ignoring the crimes of the Bush Gang and the mighty US intelligence and military machines. He apparently has not stopped the practice of rendition. And this is not front page news.

Listen President Obama, that torture, war crimes thing is a festering wound in the side of the entire world. We all know about it. It has to be excised or your words, the words in your Almighty Constitution will mean doodley to the world. If this wound is not healed it will poison us all. It cannot be tucked safely away into the past any more than the crimes of apartheid could be in South Africa. Without truth, justice and sincere effort to reconcile, it remains an infection and yes, leaving it be is an effective enemy-making strategy.

It is pitifully obvious that Canadian Prime Minister Harper has chosen to remain silent about that torture, war crimes thing done by his good old buddy south of the border. Is there hidden complicity or is it just silent consent? At the least, silence is consent.

There are international legal agreements that have been ignored without consequence rendering international jurisprudence impotent. When you include the families and friends of those killed, injured and “disappeared” then you can say factually that millions of people have been directly and indirectly injured, emotionally, psychically and physically. Thousands have been blown to smithereens. Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands? How many have been on the receiving end of limitless, Geneva Convention-defying detention and the unadulterated hell that goes with it?

To silent Canadians: Political power is not set in an election — that’s one of the mass daydreams. Make a big enough noise and watch politicians jump . Think about writing, phoning, sending carrier pigeons, text messages and emails. Don’t let up. Once isn’t enough. Our silence is our consent.

Have we become inured to atrocity?