I’ve written about this before, but it merits repeating, perhaps with different phrasing.
The reason that the United States signed the Geneva Conventions is that we are supposed to be thoroughly anti-torture. Treating criminals like criminals and not like inhuman creatures is supposed to be our modus operandi.
Because we are America, and we do not fucking torture. Thank you, Shep Smith, all those months ago.
The argument I’ve come across from some people I know is that “we can have morals as people, but we should not have morals as a country.”
Yes, yes we should. Do you know why? Because if we use the same “interrogation techniques” used during the Spanish Inquisition, the Khmer Rouge, and the Vietnam War, we are stooping to that level. The fact that we are America doesn’t mean that we should be absolved of this horrific crime- it’s like saying that Watergate should have been ignored because, oh, most people thought Nixon was a good person.
Being America does not excuse us of any crimes we have committed, up to and including breaking the Geneva laws.
There has been all sorts of fake-defense of this from the right- we get “the liberals are comparing us to the Spanish Inquisition” and “these are enhanced interrogation techniques, not torture.”
Just typing the words “enhanced interrogation techniques” leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It was inhumane and awful and this absurd debate over wording needs to be over: torture is torture is torture.
As Yglesias says: maybe we wouldn’t compare the interrogations to those of the Spanish Inquisition if they weren’t one and the same kind!
Another argument- that “torture works.” No, it doesn’t, you idiots. All torture is good for are false confessions which lead nowhere and may even distract from the actual dangers. Many people who specialize in the field of interrogation have come forward and said that no, in fact, torture does not work. When a person is under that much duress, they are going to say absolutely anything for it to stop, even if it’s false. In addition to that, even if they’re telling the truth, if it isn’t what the interrogators expect to hear, then they aren’t going to stop the torture.
Torture elicits whatever the perpetrators want it to elicit. It doesn’t “work.”
In this case, the people doing the “enhanced interrogating” wanted to secure false confessions and some reasons for a war that was a mistake in the first place. When the President of the United States screws up so royally, he generally ought to admit his wrongs and get the hell out of a place he isn’t wanted. Instead, we had a President and a shadow-ruler who covered their tracks using torture.
I am so done with this bullshit.
