Torturous Times?

Well the well-known cat is out of the bag. America tortures its international terrorism captives, or maybe all of its enemy captives? The ogre specter of horror movies pops to mind. America as the enemy? At least in the mind’s eye? Or maybe in the actual eye?

Of course America has tortured those captives that appear to hold the secrets that will save lives. We would be irresponsible if we didn’t torture those people. Their sense of freedom, decency and pursuit of happiness is greatly at odds from our own. They have cast themselves as Satanists of the American public for political and pseudo religious reasons. All specious. But they would not agree.

So they torture and produce events of ghastly terrorism against innocents.

Our response is quick, avid and equally harsh. That’s the language they understand. After all they have a reputation of suicide bombers – willing to die for the cause. Once they make that commitment the rest is easy, seems to me. That is precisely why we have to fight them with all we have.

Is this an American response? No; far from it. Americans are much kinder than that. They see the good in people. Oh sure, we have the nasty-s among us who jump to negative conclusions about most people and act accordingly. We call them cynics or criminals. Either way they may influence behavior in others but they do not influence a whole people. They are viewed as losers in our society.

No. We prefer to see the good side, the positive side of people and act accordingly if proven wrong. That gives good a chance to survive even in the worst of situations. On the opposite side it also gives chance to the upper hand for bad being done. We encounter that often. It is the tactic that unnerves and surprises victims into acting as the bad guy hopes. But the advantage is temporary. Our national resolve and reaction will be quick and damaging. Once identified the enemy is not treated with silk gloves.

As a policy question, however, America prefers to be a non-torture nation. It goes against the grain. So we claim a policy position that is anti-torture.

That is well and good. Following 9-11 in 2001, however, America adopted a firmer stance. We would adopt a silent policy of torture if we saw a means to an end. And the Bush-Cheney administration did just that. They opened Guantanamo as a terrorist prison and interrogation center. Off shore from America and near impossible to escape from. Guantanamo inmates were treated starkly and roughly. They were questioned and tortured to reveal what they knew/know. When that failed, they simply shipped them back to a nation where the torture standards were much more relaxed, or handed over to their natural enemies who were demonstrably vicious compared to American standards. They either talked or died. Either manner was hard to survive.

The mechanisms of this policy, however, are insidious. They provide the structure through which torture is easily accomplished once begun. Nevermind the research findings of the opposite: torture delivers results that are unreliable and misleading. From weak captives their ‘testimony’ is inferior to those with higher authority and resolve. We get little of value from them. From stronger willed inmates torture delivers misleading information that proves little better than useless.

Of course some good information is captured from torture. That’s why we and other nations do it.

What everyone seems to miss, however, is that torture spoils the doer as much as the done-to. We become less as a result.

On a NPR broadcast with the BBC recently, a former American diplomat said the torture report released by the Senate this week was a good thing. Although embarrassing the report and following discussion will force the American people to discuss the issue and hopefully produce a clear national consensus. What that consensus is will be determined. Only fools would forecast it at this early date.

Willing to appear foolish, I suspect American citizens will urge against torture but allow their government to pursue torture tactics in select circumstances. Of course this is a slippery slope that will require more discussion in another 20 years or so. You know, to arrive on yet another, fresh consensus on the subject.

That is the nature of torture. It is as much a revenge action as it is a hoped for strategy to unearth valuable information. In the end it does the latter only because it shows us our inner mettle as human beings. We are flawed and will pursue this means I predict.

December 11, 2014