Torture
I’m trying to get my head around both the recently released memos and the issue as a whole. I believe that torture is wrong and that it doesn’t work. But what if I believed that torture did work? That is a question of evidence, not ethics. If it worked, how much risk to American lives would I tolerate in order to defend my ethical commitment?
An editorial in today’s Post slams the Bush administration for its constant use of waterboarding in the interrogations of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Abu Zubaida, two of three Al Qaeda prisoners subjected to the treatment. KSM was waterboarded 183 times in a single month, Abu Zubaida, 83.
I’m not sure what to make of the Post’s argument. If waterboarding is torture (as per the Post), then doing it two or three times is just as bad as doing it two hundred times. If it isn’t torture, then what’s the difference how many times the method is used? I guess it’s possible that there are certain methods which aren’t torture if used sparingly, but are if used constantly. Based on my limited knowledge of the subject, I’d say that depriving someone of sleep for one night is unpleasant, two nights is rough but defensible, and seven nights may be torture.
Now back to the question of whether torture works. Opposite the Post’s editorial, there is a column by Marc Thiessen which quotes the recently released memos to the effect that harsh interrogation resulted in “specific, actionable intelligence” that saved American lives. That’s not necessarily true just because the memos say it, of course. But if these memos are being treated as essential documents in the war on terror, those assertions deserve careful scrutiny.
As a Republican, I am often frustrated by the dismissive attitude of certain Republicans toward the entire question of torture. (Just one reason I admire John McCain.) Less surprisingly, I am also frustrated by the efforts of Democrats to denounce everything the Bush administration did as unconscionable. I guess I better read up on the issue, since I don’t think it’s going away.
opinions powered by SendLove.to
2 Responses to “Torture”
I can suggest three books which you should be able to find at your local academic library. “The Politics of Pain Torturers and Their Masters” is a collection of artcles edited by Ronald D. Crelinsten; “Unspeakable Act, Ordinary People” by John Conroy; and “A Question of Torture” by Alfred W. McCoy.
Your hunch is correct. It has been well documented that combining various techniques is damaging, and constitutes torture.
As far as whether torture “works,” that shouldn't be an issue. In each case, other means, legal means were not used. Our country signed onto treaties. We agreed that these actions are wrong. It's not some sort of either or that people like Theisson or Dick Cheney can throw up in hindsight.
And one thing you might think about — do you really want to live in a country with people who have done these sort of things to other human beings? Would you trust them in your police department? In your schools? Even in your prisons?
Torture is wrong. It's always been wrong. Quibbling about what is torture or appealing to fear is weak.
Andrew Sullivan linked to a post (sorry, I'm being lazy and don't have the link at hand) that made an interesting distinction on a tactics vs. strategy basis.
Even though it can be disputed, let's assume that, on a tactical basis, torture works; that is, in certain situations we can obtain valuable information by using torture techniques. That doesn't mean, however, that doing so isn't a strategic disaster. For example, even if we did get information out of the prisioners at abu Gahrib prison, if the noterity of our methods became a recruiting tool for al Qaeda, the torture was a strategic disaster.
I think this is what Dennis Blair was rtalkinng about yesterday when he said that, although torture elicited some valuable information, he would not condone it because (a) we might have been able to get the information using other techniques and (b) the blow to our international prestige was grevious.
That, and that fact that torture is morally reprehensible and our using those techniques only goes to prove that the terrorists have won because we have stooped to their level…