Torture is wrong
'Nuff said.
posted by Mark M @ 6/16/2005 10:32:00 PM
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1 Comments:
Interesting... I post a minimum of words, and it's like a Rorschach test where the reader fills in gaps in the meaning. George Lucas, take note.
Actually, what I was referring to was Sen. Joe Biden's (D-MBNA) statement early last week that implied we should oppose torture because torturing people makes others around the world angry with us. Yes, we should care what the world thinks of us. But we should oppose torture because torture is wrong.
That said...
After following that link and reading all those righty comments, I just about need eyewash. According to the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention Against Torture, many of the alleged abuses described as occurring at Guantanamo do indeed qualify as torture. The Anchoress makes Gitmo sound like a tropical resort, but this doesn't square with the findings of Amnesty International, et al.
Most of the references I've seen to Sen. Durbin's remarks have taken them out of context. Yes, he said the word "Nazi." Doing so probably didn't add anything to his argument. But he was not comparing Guantanamo to the Holocaust, or saying that American soldiers are Nazis, as some suggest. Here is what he said...
When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here [at Guantanamo Bay]--I almost hesitate to put them in the [Congressional] Record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:
"On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor."
If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.
Even if you happen to like rap music, extended exposure to loud noises is widely considered to be a form of torture. And we can at least identify the chaining of a person in a fetal position (the "short shackle" stress position) for 24 hours as physical torture. (Exercise: How many other examples of torture can we identify in the above paragraph?) If you want a definition of torture, Wikipedia is a good resource. What Durbin described has some similarities to a form of torture known as the Shabach technique, which, it pains me to say, has been used by Israeli interrogators against Palestinians.
I think Durbin was trying to say that there is nothing exceptional about America that automatically purifies anything and everything done in our name. We usually associate torture with oppressive, authoritarian regimes, but here are examples of where we've done it too. And if we discover things being done that go against our ideals, we shouldn't allow them to continue.
A final thought, a sentiment seemingly absent from the Anchoress: "When you see the donkey of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him." (Shemot 23:5) Commentary... Rabbi Alexandri said: Two donkey drivers who hated each other were walking on a road when the donkey of one lay down under its burden. His companion saw it, and at first he passed on. But then he reflected: It says in the Torah, "If you see your enemy's donkey lying down under its burden..."? So he returned, lent a hand, and helped his enemy in loading and unloading. The driver of the overloaded donkey began to think: "Did I not suppose that he hated me? But look how compassionate he has been." By and by, the two entered an inn, ate and drank together, and became fast friends. What is it that caused them to make peace? Because one of them kept what is written in the Torah. (Tanhuma, Mishpatim, I)
If we are ever to make an end to war, we must recognize the humanity of even our most feared adversary.
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