American psychopaths: The shrinks who assisted in torture | Middle East Eye

27.7.15

American psychopaths: The shrinks who assisted in torture | Middle East Eye: Like a drunk in a dark alley trying to herd stray cats, the Bush administration did more to curtail the freedom of its citizens than those it determined to be an existential threat. The US acted before it was able to think. It dropped 500lb bombs on Afghani villages, Iraqi neighbourhoods, and terrorised children everywhere from Yemen to the border regions of Pakistan with the incessant buzzing sound of the Predator drone.

Not long after the bombing campaign against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan began, intelligence assessments estimated Bin Laden’s terror group to have a headcount of roughly 200. Today, militants from the Islamic State (IS) number in the tens of thousands and counting. In other words, our terror created more terrorists.

In the pursuit of shadows, we stripped away the rights of those we kidnapped and tortured. We became psychopaths, and now a new report shows the Bush administration co-opted those who are in the business of determining psychopathic disorders: the American Psychological Association (APA).