Torture
There are many reasons why torture went out of style in the 20th century. Humanitarian movements demonstrated that life has intrinsic value–even if that life happens to live in a foreign nation (that your nation may find disagreeable). Military strategists learned that torture is a very ineffective means to gather intelligence or discourage insurrection. Perhaps the most important element to consider today is the simplest: torture is a sign of weakness.
I am working my way through a European History course (podcast, naturally) and stumbled upon a real gem in lecture #2: throughout the last 1000 years of world history, only the weakest and most power-starved nations have employed torture as a punishment or deterrent. During the long, slow progress from Feudalism to powerful central governments, torture was always used as a tactic of last resort. Rest assured, few (none?) of the campaigns in which torture played a central role were ultimately successful. (Despite the best efforts during the Spanish Inquisition, Protestantism still exists today!)
In the 21st century, some high ranking U.S. officials seem to have forgotten the last few centuries and instead operate in a fictitious Hollywood version of reality. In this neo-reality, torturing an Iraqi or Afghanistan (or American) civilian is a sure-fire method to gather sound intelligence. (Never mind that this tactic almost never works.)
Since the torture program was outed by the press, these same high-ranking U.S. officials have conveniently redefined the word “torture”. Today, such barbaric practises as sensory- and sleep-deprivation, near-drowning (water boarding), and psychological abuse all fall outside the boundaries of “torture” and are thus fair game for any and all military prisoners. (Keep in mind that psychological and physical torture have similar effects on the mind and body.)
Just as torture has a very negative and lasting effect on the victim, it has an equally negative impact on us. In a few short years, we have tarnished a global admiration for the U.S. that took decades to build. We have effectively lost our diplomatic sway when confronting other nations for their humanitarian violations. Finally, we have exposed our lack of power and control in a region of the world that will be ever more important in the next 20 years.
If only our fearless leaders in Washington had bothered to read about their counterparts throughout history. Maybe then we wouldn’t have to learn these hard lessons all over again.
Filed under politics, war : Comments (0) : Mar 14th, 2007 by tadfad
