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There are some in our country who adamantly believe that America is a \u201cJudeo-Christian nation,\u201d meaning, this country was founded upon Judeo-Christian values. Even though history may dispute this claim<\/a>, it is made nonetheless. The fact that \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d has been enshrined on our currency may give bolster to this claim (although it was added much later, in the early 20th Century. Our Founding Fathers\u2019 choice for national motto was \u201cE Pluribus Unum,\u201d or, \u201cOut of Many, One.\u201d Pretty areligious, isn\u2019t it?).<\/p>\n I am not here to dispute this claim, but I do ask the question: do we really trust in God? Has our country acted \u2013 most especially since September 11 \u2013 in a manner becoming of a people who truly trust in God? Not at all, I am afraid to say. Let us summarize America\u2019s course of action since the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001.<\/p>\n As the Washington Post first reported on November 2<\/a>, soon after 9\/11, the CIA set up secret prisons where it took some suspects caught in the \u201cwar on terror.\u201d This immediately caused a dilemma: what if these suspects decided not to talk? What if they refused to cooperate with CIA interrogators? Would it be ok to torture them? But, wouldn\u2019t that violate both U.S. and International law?<\/p>\n Not to worry, our government had that covered! In August 2002, Justice Department lawyers (in collaboration with our now attorney general) drafted a memorandum stating that laws prohibiting torture do \u201cnot apply to the President\u2019s detention and interrogation of enemy combatants.\u201d Moreover, the memo tightened the definition of torture to mean pain caused by an interrogation that must include \u201cinjury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions.\u201d Thus, we could torture terror suspects and tell the world, \u201cAmerica does not torture anyone.\u201d Is this becoming of a nation that trusts in God?<\/p>\n At about the same time these prisons were erected, the CIA was abducting terror suspects and sending them to foreign countries abroad for interrogation, where it was almost certain that they would be tortured. It was a program called \u201cextraordinary rendition.\u201d Now, the countries to which we sent these suspects told the United States, \u201cOh don\u2019t worry, we won\u2019t torture them. You have our word,\u201d and the U.S. took them at their word. Again, this way, terror suspects could be tortured and we could say to the rest of the world \u2013 with a straight face \u2013 that \u201cAmerica does not torture anyone.\u201d Is this becoming of a nation that trusts in God?<\/p>\n Also at the same time, more and more captives from the battlefield of Afghanistan (many of whom were innocent people) were being sent to Guantanamo Bay as \u201cenemy combatants,\u201d to be imprisoned there in perpetuity, without benefit of legal counsel, due process, and access to the judicial system. What was more worrying was the government\u2019s detention of its own citizens as \u201cenemy combatants,\u201d locking them away without access to legal counsel or the benefit of due process as guaranteed by the Constitution (remember that document, the Constitution?). Is this becoming of a nation that trusts in God?<\/p>\n Then, even though the dust from the bombing of Afghanistan did not yet clear, the Bush Administration began to make its case for war with Iraq by (falsely) claiming that Iraq was teeming with weapons of mass destruction. In fact, the Administration made such a claim so forcefully, that we thought said weapons of mass destruction would hit our troops in the face as they crossed into Iraq from Kuwait. Moreover, Vice President Dick Cheney continually hinted \u2013 although never actually saying it outright \u2013 that Al Qaeda was linked to Saddam Hussein, that Iraq and 9\/11 were somehow linked. We have since come to learn<\/a>that this assertion was based on the account of a prisoner \u201crendered\u201d to Egypt for more \u201cinterrogation,\u201d who later said he fabricated the claim to escape harsh treatment. Is this becoming of a nation that trusts in God?<\/p>\n Well, we invaded Iraq and no weapons of mass destruction were ever found. The purported link between Iraq and Al Qaeda was deemed to be false by the 9\/11 Commission. And now, more and more American and Iraqi lives are being lost in a war that is increasingly being seen for the disastrous mistake it was, and one from which America can not extricate herself. What\u2019s worse, with each American life lost, the vile and vicious terrorists who have flocked to Iraq are getting better trained in urban and guerilla warfare, as well as terrorist techniques. When they go home, they will likely bring their \u201cjihad\u201d experiences with them to their countries of origin, further destabilizing the world. Did this \u201cpre-emptive strike\u201d on a country that was obviously no threat to the United States reflect a nation that trusts in God?<\/p>\n I mean, what does it mean to trust in God? How does a nation that claims it trusts in God supposed to act? It is supposed to act in a manner that is just and upright, because it knows that so long as it stays on God\u2019s side, it will never fail. It knows that God is the Most Powerful, that God is able to do all things. And if God fights its battles, it can never lose. But, to have God on its side, it cannot stoop to a new level of immorality because, although I can\u2019t speak for God, I know for a fact that God does not stand on the side of torture, abuse, injustice, and falsehood.<\/p>\n A nation that trusts in God does not torture suspects in its custody, no matter how brutal and vicious they may be. A nation that trusts in God does not detain indefinitely terror suspects simply because they are \u201cnot prisoners of war, but enemy combatants.\u201d A nation that trusts in God does not invade another country based upon faulty intelligence (if not outright lies) to open the \u201ccentral front\u201d in the \u201cwar on terror.\u201d It knows that God will always lend His Helping Hands so long as it does what is right. I mean, what better ally could America have than God? <\/p>\n <\/i><\/p>\n