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Abu Ghraib: Specialists Charles Graner
punching restrained
prisoners
Credit: U.S. military or Department of Defense
Copyright: Public
Domain
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The
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were a time we could have shown the
world the strength of America’s character. But the Senate Intelligence
Committee’s Torture Report revealed just the opposite: America failed to live
up to the principles it professes.
As you may
recall at George W. Bush’s behest the lawyers of the Justice Department’s Office
of Legal Counsel (OLC) connived a way to make torture permissible. OLC asserted
that since the protocols and international laws established by the Geneva
Convention only apply to lawful combatants of nation states, terrorist were unlawful
combatants since they were not nation state fighters, therefore, the
international laws governing the humane treatment of prisoners of war didn’t apply.
Moreover, OLC
advised the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Department, and the President
that the set of enhanced interrogation techniques presented to them would be legally
permissible under an expansive interpretation of presidential authority.
The media reports very little, if at all, our
government’s policy of extraordinary rendition. A procedure where captured
terrorist are sent to secret CIA prisons (black sites) in other countries where
torture goes beyond the legal limits permissible under enhanced interrogation.
Following
the release of the Senate torture report, President Obama declared that the
revelations in the report were “contrary to who we are.” Others have expressed
the same sentiment.
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Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq showing Pvt. Lynndie England
holding a leash attached to a prisoner
collapsed on the floor, known to the
guards as "Gus."
Credit: U.S. military or Department of Defense
Copyright: Public
Domain
|
The
President, and all those who share his view are naïve, knowingly not telling
the truth, or in a state of denial. The fact is that our country has practiced
torture as a necessity of war throughout
our history and Americans casually accept torture -- in this case enhanced
interrogation just like they accept collateral damage -- as just a part of war.
Even though
there are real patriots who
bravely put themselves on the line and spoke out, a
significant number of Americans chose to praise those who were performing such
horrendous acts as patriots.
A new
Pew Research survey finds that over half of Americans believe that torture
is justified.
So here is
the crux of the problem. As the Pew survey suggests, and as Peter Beinart
says, “those actions were not ‘contrary to who we are… Torture Is Who We Are.’”
Regarding
the Torture Report, Andrew
Bacevich rightfully predicts, it’s “… a little public slap on the hand,
after which an ever-so-quiet return to business as usual will ensue.”
But the
worst part is that the situation will not change as long as a majority of
Americans believe that war and subsequently torture is necessary and there “were
[no] errors at all.”
America’s fatal
addiction to war and torture is well on its way to evolving the principles
set forth in our founding documents that in the end will destroy us.
