Torture, the Other, and Fear
Wonderful op-ed in the Washington Post on Sunday entitled "Are We Really So Fearful?"
Then they follow it up on Monday morning with a number of other opinions from retired Generals to human rights activists.
The torture debate currently going on in the US is fascinating.
One of the rationales that Americans have had in going in and helping topple dictators is that they break international norms.
They torture. They're corrupt. They flaunt international law (or sometimes referred to as "the will of the international community"). They don't act like global citizens, but like global renegades.
Doesn't every torture argument really invoke those images about the U.S. -- that we'll do anything we want if it's in our self interest?
Do we spoil long standing celebrated American values when we apply different laws to ourselves than they do to others?
Torturing Americans is wrong and America would attack any international force that did it. Torturing others, apparently, isn't wrong if we suspect that they might be trying to harm the US. That hypocrisy, which is natural, is at the heart of why the Geneva Convention was adopted.
We are so far along on a destructive conflict spiral that we no longer see the "other" is human.
The problem, of course, is that the "other" are human beings too. They may not be American, but they are human. Torture destroys lives. Destroys them. It doesn't win the hearts and minds of the people you're trying to convince that "our" way is better than "your" way. It's only after the torture that you may come to find that the person was innocent.
Arguments that it's in the US's best interest to torture so that we can gain important intelligence to prevent an attack is short sighted. There will be other attacks. We can't stop them all. The attacks are responses to US behavior overseas. Torture doesn't somehow deter that. But what it does do is enbolden that various extremist groups around the world who believe that America is somehow, the "Great Satan"
In the meantime, the US has lost its moral position in the world as long as it continues to try to "clarify" the Geneva Conventions and justify certain practices like waterboarding. Even our closest allies have recoiled. Our moral messages are falling on deaf ears around the world. The fear the US invokes to convince US citizens that torturing others is in their best interest is now being questioned.
It reminds me of Bruce Springsteen's song "Devils and Dust"
I got my finger on the trigger
But I don't know who to trust
When I look into your eyes
There's just devils and dust
I got God on my side
And I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing, baby
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust
... What if what we do to survive, kills the things we love?
Then they follow it up on Monday morning with a number of other opinions from retired Generals to human rights activists.
The torture debate currently going on in the US is fascinating.
One of the rationales that Americans have had in going in and helping topple dictators is that they break international norms.
They torture. They're corrupt. They flaunt international law (or sometimes referred to as "the will of the international community"). They don't act like global citizens, but like global renegades.
Doesn't every torture argument really invoke those images about the U.S. -- that we'll do anything we want if it's in our self interest?
Do we spoil long standing celebrated American values when we apply different laws to ourselves than they do to others?
Torturing Americans is wrong and America would attack any international force that did it. Torturing others, apparently, isn't wrong if we suspect that they might be trying to harm the US. That hypocrisy, which is natural, is at the heart of why the Geneva Convention was adopted.
We are so far along on a destructive conflict spiral that we no longer see the "other" is human.
The problem, of course, is that the "other" are human beings too. They may not be American, but they are human. Torture destroys lives. Destroys them. It doesn't win the hearts and minds of the people you're trying to convince that "our" way is better than "your" way. It's only after the torture that you may come to find that the person was innocent.
Arguments that it's in the US's best interest to torture so that we can gain important intelligence to prevent an attack is short sighted. There will be other attacks. We can't stop them all. The attacks are responses to US behavior overseas. Torture doesn't somehow deter that. But what it does do is enbolden that various extremist groups around the world who believe that America is somehow, the "Great Satan"
In the meantime, the US has lost its moral position in the world as long as it continues to try to "clarify" the Geneva Conventions and justify certain practices like waterboarding. Even our closest allies have recoiled. Our moral messages are falling on deaf ears around the world. The fear the US invokes to convince US citizens that torturing others is in their best interest is now being questioned.
It reminds me of Bruce Springsteen's song "Devils and Dust"
I got my finger on the trigger
But I don't know who to trust
When I look into your eyes
There's just devils and dust
I got God on my side
And I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing, baby
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust
... What if what we do to survive, kills the things we love?
I think the bottom line is that the experts on this subject don't believe that torture actually works. You'll say anything when someone is pulling your toenails out.
To your larger point, the double standard, may make us safer in the short term (by preempting an attack) but only feeds the bitter resentment in the Middle East and throughout the rest of the world in the long term. Safer now? Maybe. Safer later? Probably not.
Posted by
Professor Ford |
4:45 PM