Taxi to the Dark Side review

Just got back from a screening of the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side. Though it's hard to separate the flotsam from the jetsam in the recent glut of anti-war documentaries that have come out, this one definitely stands out. Taking a hard look at the U.S. torture practice in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo, it made me angrier than anything I've seen in a long while.

Besides some really shocking facts (for example, the U.S. Military admits that over a third of the deaths of those in detentions were willful homicides), it really blows the lid off of any of the illusions you may still be desperately clinging to about the morality of the United States government or military. Of course, the painful juxtapositions really make themselves, as you look at the bloated corpses of innocent men who have been beaten to death (after being forced to stand naked chained to a wall for days in a row, then forced to masturbate in front of cheering guards, then attacked repeatedly by vicious dogs, then repeatedly told their mother is a whore while being force-fed I.V.s until the soiled themselves, and about a million other indignities) as you are then immediately taken to a smirking Donald Rumsfeld saying that it's nothing worse than what he has to do in his day-to-day job.

And it completely blows away the argument that these people are so dangerous that we much imprison them and torture them lest they attack us. Because not only does the military admit that the vast majority of them are not Al Qaeda, insurgents, or in any way a threat to us, but it proves who the real terrorists are. I am now much more afraid of the United States military than I am of any sort of Islamic terrorist.

Though I think what I'll most take away from it is the fact that no one responsible for this will ever be punished. Sure, a few scapegoats will get a week or two in jail, but Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney and the whole lot of those arrogant war criminals will never be brought to justice. In fact, as the movie points out, Bush has already signed a pardon for himself in the event that he is charged with any war crimes. It reminds us that the real reason the Nazis were tried at Nuremberg is because they lost. For when you win, it doesn't matter how many innocent people you tortured and murdered.