When the military utilizes torture tactics, the atrocities rarely only affect the people the military desires to torture. Those torture tactics are used on families and communities and are passed down from military personnel to their children and possibly their grandchildren and beyond.
In today’s, military, often gang members admittedly sign up for the express purpose of learning methods of killing, torturing and controlling others with the intent to take these new skills back to their communities. In teaching violence to former gang members, the military is creating a monster, a nation of torturers and killers who are likely to increase the level of violence in our society. If these servicemen/former servicemen are killed in a gang fight or through natural causes, the military's torture techniques survive them and are passed to their children.
A prime example is now-deceased John Henry Richter, a former intelligence officer involved with torturing Germans after World War II with the intent of obtaining information. After he returned to the states, he married and had children but continued to work with military intelligence. Some, who knew his wife, believed that she manifested numerous symptoms of an abuse victim. When Richter died in 1994, one would think the violence would have ended with him.
Years later, Richter’s daughter J. (first name withheld to protect her privacy) reportedly abused a little child who was staying at her house and spoke of her desire to see her sons violently killed.
Richter’s son M. has reportedly beaten and tortured one of more women and looted their bank accounts.
Military torturers can appear to be fully normal in most situations, but when someone stands up to them, a switch flips and the torture begins.
The suicide rate from personnel coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan is the highest following any war in American history. The high incident of torture and governmental support for torture creates a situation where troops learn torture skills the government tells them are acceptable.
When the servicemen bring back these torture skills and the attitude of acceptability of violence and their sons witness the abuse of weaker family members, the torture techniques are passed from generation to generation. What a legacy for future generations of Americans.
Original: The Military: A Training Ground for Domestic Abuse and Gang Violence