Quit Torturing Me About Torture

mathpol, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Apr 18, 2009 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

(This is a less inflammatory version of the original.)

In recent days we have seen such a proliferation of news about torture, the torture memos and so forth, that I need not recount it here. To me, here are the salient points, in my humble opinion.

1) Abu Ghraib: Has been over-hyped. The acts were atrocious, but hardly the worst thing to happen to anybody, unless one considers humiliation worse than death, as some Muslims apparently do. In extreme cases, torture is even worse than death.

2) Guantanamo: A necessary evil, in my opinion. Even though the 'war on terror" appears to have no end, you can't keep people there forever without charging them with something. Granted, some of those who have been released have embraced (or re-embraced) terrorism, just as some criminals who are released from prison return to a life of crime.

3) Water boarding: I don't intend to dwell on what was done to Khalid Sheik Mohammed and a few others. Apparently some good information was obtained, along with some nonsense.

4) Geneva Conventions. This is one to be seriously worried about. To the extent we abrogated them, the people who participated in this may face prosecution in foreign countries, and our soldiers and civilians may be put at risk in the future if they are captured.

5) Rendition of prisoners; Atrocious, but probably necessary in a few cases.

I am not defending torture, or trying to minimize its horrible effects, but it should be viewed in context. Remember 9/11? I am dismayed by all this holier-than-thou posturing about our values. If you believe we are in a war which sometimes requires extra-legal measures, then let's recount some atrocities that far eclipse those of the "war on terror", and which we had something to do with or could have helped prevent or minimize.

1) The Holocaust

2) Hiroshima

3) Nagasaki

4) Firebombing of Japan and Germany during WWII.

5) The Vietnam War

6) The Guatemalan Civil War (1960-96)

7) The Cultural Revolution (1966-76)

8) Chile (1973-74) after Augusto Pinochet's overthrow of Salvador Allende

9) The "disappeared" in Argentina (1975-83)

10) The Iran-Iraq War (1980-88)

11) The Salvadoran Civil War (1980-92)

12) Genocides in various places, including Indonesia (1965), Nigeria-Biafra (1966-70), Bangladesh (1971-72), Cambodia (1975-79), Iraq (1987-88 and 1991), Rwanda, and Darfur.

The question is not whether or not we should commit atrocities, but rather which ones are justified by realpolitik. (Excuse me for sounding like Henry Kissinger. A lot of his criminal endeavors were not justified, in my opinion.) So let's get real!

Admittedly, Cheney and Rumsfeld seemed to take particular delight in pushing torture, and the "First Cowboy", George W. Bush, was thoroughly disgusting with his "bring 'em on", "us versus them", and "dead or alive" comments. (These are about the only things he has apologized for.)

Well, can't we move beyond all this and stick to our values? Sure. As long as the rest of the world buys into this.

I conclude with some humor. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, there was a big debate about whether the Soviet missiles in Cuba were offensive or defensive in nature.

As I recall, the humorist Art Buchwald wrote that the difference between an offensive weapon and a defensive weapon is that an offensive weapon is a defensive weapon with your name on it.

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