It’s relieving to hear many conservatives dissent from the kind of torture that the U.S. has practised these past few years in the war on terror. But there are two critical myths that keep being repeated. Let me enumerate them.
This was only about Abu Ghraib. Nope. Abu Ghraib was what prompted the inquiries and reports that showed us that this phenomenon was much more widespread. Torture has occurred at Abu Ghraib after the scandal hit; in Ramadi, Tikrit, in Saddam’s old mukhabbarat HQ in Basra, at Camp Cropper, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and in transit. It has been perpetrated by almost every branch of the military. When you read a blog like the Mudville Gazette, you realize that they are simply ignoring the bulk of the evidence. Why?
There’s no proof this was actually policy. Well, that’s pretty much true as it stands. Officially, the president ordered – like a monarch – that, although prisoners did not deserve Geneva protection, they should have it. But it seems to me remarkably incurious not to be troubled by the following series of events: memos telling POTUS that he has the right to order torture, regardless of any domestic law or international treaty; memos defining torture in the most minimal sense; torture restrictions loosened at Guantanamo Bay, under Rumsfeld’s instructions for a few weeks; the transfer of the general in Gitmo to Abu Ghraib, because intelligence wasn’t forthcoming; a sudden outbreak of torture across all the theaters of war. I would hope that those who say they’re against torture might not simply dismiss these facts as if there’s nothing suspicious here. And in many of the reports, plenty of military officials say they believed they were acting under orders from the highest authorities. I quote from the ICRC report:
“Several military intelligence officers confirmed … that it was part of the military intelligence process to hold a person deprived of his liberty naked in a completely dark and empty cell for a prolonged period to use inhumane and degrading treatment, including physical and psychological coercion … to secure their cooperation.”
Again: hmm. The current conservative orthodoxy is that the Red Cross cannot be trusted. I dissent.
If we are to have a debate about interrogating a few high profile Qaeda members, then Rich Lowry is right that the administration should welcome the debate. Alas, that is no longer the debate. The debate is how this administration has presided over widespread torture, abuse, rape and murder of inmates in American custody; how its own laxness and mixed messages contributed to this; how we still do not know how commanders got the impression that this was policy; andn how all this has deeply wounded America’s reputation, undermined the war, and perpetrated evil. Perhaps some simply trust the administration to be good guys. When it comes to torture, trust is not enough. In all this, the president has evaded any real responsibility and has rewarded all those who presided over this catastrophe. It is a shameful record. He deserves to be held to account. Not to benefit the pathetic Democrats – who ducked this issue in the campaign as well. But because this is America. This stuff shouldn’t happen. Period.
The Dish 