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Saturday, June 19, 2004

Torture? The Word Itself is Ugly and Patently Un-American

11:43 AM

Since I agree that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" I am loathe to label anything, much less anyone, with the sobriquet "Un-American," but in the case of this most ugly word, "torture," I have absolutely no compunction at its use in this context. Also, if Samuel Johnson's oft-cited quotation is of substance, then I may be allowed to stretch its structure and theme more than a little and offer a quote of my own: 'Torture in the name of patriotism, or even in the defense of that for which we rightly feel patriotic, is the first refuge of a tyrant.'

My sometimes friend, and former colleague, Alan Dershowitz, and his unconscionable departure from his senses--something Alan does from time to time just to piss off Lawrence Summers and almost everyone else for the sheer pleasure of hearing his name rattling from rafters near and far--in his now infamous defense of torture, notwithstanding, there is no excuse for the use of torture by a civilized society. Its use destroys the user even more surely than its victim with its internal rot of the soul; just as slavery ultimately made slaves and moral degenerates of the slaver.

I am, of course, by no means alone in this belief. Two of my favorite bloggers, who are more often than not on opposite sides of political debates, have both recently posted strong views condemning the torture that we know was done in our name in Iraq, Richard of The Peking Duck, and Conrad of The Gweilo Diaries. Therefore I shan't preach in great length here upon the odoriferous gangrene now eating away at the center of the American soul, but since I have not been able to post of late, I had to add my voice to the clamor calling for the rot to be cut away no matter how deep and upwards it goes.

Below you will find an excellent short piece on the issue from Reason Express, and below that you will find a link to "The Memo" which is the damning evidence of just how high and official is the rotting core of the torture scandals.

The Department of Justice's torture memo, despite its length and finely honed language, is a rather simple document that sets out to achieve two ends. First, it makes the case that when the president wears his commander-in-chief hat, he may do as he pleases to anyone, anywhere. Second, the memo functions as a defense lawyer's brief for any government official charged with committing torture.

Of the two goals, the second seems by far the more insidious and potentially dangerous. After all, the notion of executive supremacy can be rejected on its face. But if a definition of torture were to become enshrined that recognized torture as torture only when the accused knew he or she was committing torture (which is what the memo argues), that definition might become difficult to dislodge.

Moreover, such a definition of torture is an almost perfect roadmap to dehumanizing prisoners and adopting a "they're used to it" defense of harsh treatment. Bang them around and rough them up? It's OK, they're used to it. Strip them and turn the dogs on them? It's OK, they'll get over it.

A legal definition of torture that holds that only the intent to cause severe pain and possible permanent injury is torture actually encourages abusers to regard captives as persons able to withstand rough treatment. In short, it behooves the torturer to view his captives as more animal than human. Doing so removes the needed intent the Justice Department says must be present to show that torture, in fact, occurred.

Reason Express

The Memo, in .pdf form

[NOTE: I am still suffering intermittent posting woes; Blogger.com�s interface�the �dashboard��works only occasionally, and only for brief moments, which means that it is extremely difficult to blog with any consistency. Blogger.com is blaming the problem on Chinese censorship of the Internet. However, since my site isn�t blocked, nor is Blogger.com�s Home Page or the personalized posting interface for The LongBow Papers blocked, I find that explanation illogical. How can the government censors monkey with the internal functions of Blogger? And why not just pull the plug on my site or Blogger.com itself? Whatever, please forgive the scarcity of new posts�it is not due to a lack of interest, I assure you.

Further update: The problem continues; there are only short windows of opportunity for posting and they are not predictable. Consequently, timely posting is extremely problematical]

11:43 AM / Editor / permalink 1 comments

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1 Comments:

I think the word that your looking for is In-human, un-American has too many times been twinned with the word "activity" and used to brand anybody from Communists and Civil Rights leaders, to homosexuals and rascists.

It is a catch all word which as you have so rightly said is used to label somebody who you want to denounce.

http://angrychineseblogger.blog-city.com/

By Anonymous, at 6:14 PM