Torture Is The Rule, Not the Exception
Why are we so surprised?
It’s more and more clear all the time that the whatever it says in public, the Bush administration has done (and continues to do) everything it can to get around domestic and international law to permit “coercive interrogation techniques” like electric shocks, starvation, threat of drowning, threats of dog bites, and more, otherwise known as “torture” in any other democratic society. Somehow, this gave front line interrogators the message that acceptable behavior included things like electric shocks, starvation, threat of drowning, threat of dog bites, beatings, and other torture and abuse. And the irony is that any expert interrogator will tell you that torture and abuse rarely produces useful information.
We all know enough of what happened in Abu Gharib and Guantanamo to know it’s wrong—if we’re honest with ourselves. The issue that seems to get no discussion is that torture, abuse, and rape always happens in war and prisons. Always. No exceptions. So why should these incidents surprise us so?
In World War II alone, there were the German “Joy Division” and the Japanese “Comfort Women,” both forced prostitution camps by captured Jewish and Chinese women, respectively. Not to mention the horrors of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Dachau, and the other concentration camps. The 80s group Spandau Ballet was named after a term used by the Nazis to describe the twitching that happened to a dying person’s legs as they were being hanged.
In both the Korean and Vietnam wars, American POWs were subjected to torture, indefinite imprisonment, and more. The U.S. engaged in widespread slaughter and abuse, torture, threats, intimidations, assassinations, and the litany of inhuman behaviors which are, unfortunately, all too human in war.
In Serbia, there was wholesale rape and “ethnic cleansing.” In Central America, death squads have and in many places are still murdering civilians more or less on a whim. In the middle east, Israeli interrogators routinely torture suspected Palestinian militants, while any Israeli soldier unfortunate enough to be caught by Palestinians will be beaten to death and dragged through the streets, just as American soldiers were in Iraq. In South Africa, abuse and torture were so systematized and widespread—the rule rather than the exception—that there could be no prosecutions. The best option for everyone was a truth and reconciliation committee that would at least get it all out on the table.
In American prisons, inmates are routinely sodomized, beaten, and killed, both by each other and guards.
In every conflict throughout history, and in every prison system on earth, abuse, murder, and torture happen regularly, and are regularly ignored by “good Germans,” and other “good” citizens everywhere, including “good Americans.”
It’s the nature of violence that it brings out the worst in people. It’s the nature of power over others, especially in extremely emotionally charged situations, that leads to abuse. Look at the overwhelming number of cases of police abuse, both in jails and at political protests. It’s not just whining on the part of prisoners and protesters. And talk to any truly honest soldier who’s been in battle on the ground (or cop on the street) and they’ll tell you about times they witnessed rage, hatred, and fear overcome compassion, honor, or law.
Americans have a skewed idea of violence and war. We have a skewed idea that “our” soldiers, “our” police, “our people” are beyond “that.” We want to be “positive.” We want to look at the ends, not the means. Well, good morning, America. As much as we try do deny it, we’re all human, too. And that’s the problem. Because the means includes hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths and maimings, poisoning the air, land, and water for future generations (in this case, of Iraqis), and torture, abuse, rape, and murder.
When we start hopping, skipping, and jumping off to war with such a rush and righteous indignation as we did in Iraq, there’s no discussion of the realities. Every self-named “conservative” will say, “war is hell” without even blinking but not a one of them will really talk about the real consequences of it, which will always include dehumanization, torture, and murder.
It’s not just a few bad apples. It’s the barrel.
When we rush to war, none of this is discussed. When we call anyone who questions a “traitor” or “appeaser,” or worse, we reduce our democracy to a bunch of bullies on a schoolyard. We shoot first and ask no questions later, but make excuses to make us feel justified. “Everyone thought he had WMDs.” “All the weapons were probably smuggled out to Syria.” “Saddam was no angel.” True or not, it still doesn’t address the issue.
When we, as a supposedly democratic, free society, are making the decision to go to war, all the consequences must be considered, or all our big talk about “freedom” is just bullshit. If we don’t consider the consequences—the deaths of thousands of innocents, bombed wedding parties, the thousands of tons of things like Depleted Uranium, burning oil poisoning the air, unexploded bombs, and more that are left over, and, of course, the fact that we will be putting our young men and women in situations where they will be pushed to the breaking point and some of them, while representing America, will do things we find horrifying and shameful—then we’re no better than, in this case, Saddam. And we wind up being a country of liars, cowards, and hypocrites.
War should be the last option for a reason—and not just for rhetoric. We have, as a culture, used the phrases “horrors of war,” “war is hell,” “war is the last option,” and others, so many times that they are pretty much meaningless. We don’t really believe it, or think about it. We think of war as something on the big screen, with Tom Cruise looking good and flying like a sonofabitch. Do we still think of war prisoners as Hogan’s Heroes? Or do we wallow in the heroic sentimentality of “Private Ryan,” when we should just play the first 30 minutes of the film over and over and over again, naked and wet, in a cold and darkened room, alone. Or the scenes in which main characters are killed suddenly. Or interviews with the “comfort women” of WWII. Or survivors of Colombian death squads. Or Serbia’s war. Or any war. Or any prisoners of war. Because that’s sort of war. But it will all still be on screen, and not in your nostrils.
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J Klein is the creator of DemocracyMeansYou and occasionally writes and pens cartoons for the site. He lives in an undisclosed location in North Carolina with Dick Cheney.
DemocracyMeansYou was started as both an artistic response to the ubiquitous flag stickers after 9/11 (the THINK sticker was the impetus for the whole shebang), and a forum for liberal and progressive opinion, humor (always important), and inspiring / urging / demanding participation in the democratic process.
He has written for various publications and websites over the years, has worked as a licensed Psychiatric Technician with both the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled; worked as a mechanic for several years; worked for local government promoting ridesharing and alternative transportation in California; quantifying school accountability for California schools; and marketing writing and web design.
