Sunday, May 3, 2009

Menachem Begin Quoted

In a blog post disussing the merits of torture on the background of the recent American experience, Andrew Sullivan has quoted Menachem Begin twice.

Here

Maybe Krauthammer would take Menachem Begin's word on how sleep deprivation is indeed torture, as he experienced it under the Soviets.


where he referred to this one from three years ago:

Menachem Begin was subjected to sleep deprivation as a torture technique in the Soviet Gulag. He describes a torture victim who is

"wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire to sleep, to sleep just a little, not to get up, to lie, to rest, to forget ... Anyone who has experienced the desire knows that not even hunger or thirst are comparable it with it."

Maybe this helps bridge some of the gap in understanding between those of us who oppose torture and those who think we are being hyperbolic hysterics. The issue is not sadism. It is compulsion.


The source is, of course, "White Nights", page 153 in the recent brand-new revised edition whuch has been published by the Begin Center and is available for purchase.
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