During the Bush Administration (it almost makes me vomit to even type that), we were told “America does not torture.” Except, well, that was a lie. Now we can say it, and it’s true. And we can be proud of our country, knowing that we are no longer held captive by a hypocritical bunch of chickenhawk neo-conservative douchebags.
More memos detailing the abominable practices of the previous administration were released today. Here’s a short summary of what they contain, courtesy of the Daily Beast. Most of the practices described and “justified” in the memos were actually put to use, which we know from a report by the Red Cross which details the actual experiences of more than a dozen detainees. You can download the full Red Cross memo here (warning: PDF). It’s pretty gruesome, sickening stuff.
I’ve been thinking about this whole thing a lot lately, definitely more than I want to. I have thought back to how we all felt after 9/11; how many of us might have been a little more open to the idea of torturing suspects, especially if they knew things (and would tell them) that would prevent a similar tragedy. Or, if we knew a person was guilty of horrible crimes, would we perhaps be comfortable with that person being tortured in ways such as those described? Sometimes, in our worst moments, yes; we might wish to see people suffer torture. But that doesn’t make it right.
Here’s the problem, or actually, problems.
1. Even if a person has committed horrible crimes, we cannot then commit horrible crimes against him or her, because that makes us no better than the criminal. Torture has no place as punishment in a just and moral society. Our duty is to try, convict, and incarcerate criminals. To punish them by the loss of their freedom, perhaps to make them perform community service, and even to find ways in which they might be redeemed some day.
2. It has been proven time and time again that torture is not an effective way to elicit information. As far back as the Inquisition it was recognized that a man will say nearly anything while being tortured. He will admit to anything in order to make the torture stop. True to this historical example, it has been reported that no intelligence of real value was obtained through the torture that was perpetrated on behalf of this country.
3. Here’s the one that bothers me the most. The people being tortured in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and CIA black sites were not tried or proven guilty. They were suspects. In some cases, they were turned over by various warlords and militias through a bounty system. We do not know if some of these men were guilty of anything at all. In fact, there is a very high likelihood that many of them were innocent of any wrongdoing, and were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And that is what will give me nightmares until I die: this country tortured innocent people. Were all of them innocent? Probably not. Did some of them deserve to be punished or treated badly? Possibly. Did any of them deserve to be treated as less than human and tortured? Never.
Andrew Sullivan has a long, th0ughtful post about all of this, which is very good. Read the whole thing. I agree with him that “those who pay the legal price should be, first and foremost, those who authorized this at the highest levels.” That means Yoo, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and ultimately, Bush, among others. I don’t know how I feel about prosecuting any individual interrogator. On one hand, their consciences should have told them that what they were doing was unacceptable. On the other – they were told it was legal, right, and allowed. Perhaps some of them were even ordered to do it. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would willingly and unquestioningly follow such orders, but that’s why I’m not in that line of work, I suppose. I just wish no one else was, either.
