One of the most discouraging developments in political discourse over the past few years (and this is saying a lot since the level of discourse has been plummeting) is the vigorous defense of torture from a number of Republicans. Not from Republicans who have actually been tortured, like John McCain. He has taken a strong stance against it. But a number of people have been defending torture on the grounds that it led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
Actually, the people who were waterboarded lied about the couriers that led the U.S. to Bin Laden. Interrogators knew they were lying and so deduced that the couriers were important. So I suppose there’s a far-flung case that can be made. But it’s not clear that we couldn’t have figured this out through other means. Furthermore, it is still immoral, against the laws of humanity and of God.
An indication that defenders are not entirely at peace with the practice is their use of a euphemism. They don’t call waterboarding “torture,” even though the U.S. used to call it torture and it has generally been considered torture since the Spanish Inquisition used it. They instead call it an “enhanced interrogation technique.”
Anyone who knows George Orwell’s 1984 recognizes this as classic doublespeak (called “Newspeak” in the novel). It’s only the latest instance of the U.S. engaging in Orwellian euphemisms. During the Vietnam War, we talked about “terminating with extreme prejudice” rather than assassination. During the Persian Gulf War there were “surgical strikes.” Now we have this.
Unfortunately, it gets even worse. Recently we have learned that the torture was not used to elicit information. It was used to break people. I turn you over at this point to a post by Andrew Sullivan of the Daily Dish, who juxtaposes passages from 1984 with statements by first Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen (now Washington Post columnist) and then presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Go here to read how what they are saying is practically indistinguishable from Orwell’s Big Brother.
Ultimately, the U.S. stopped using waterboarding because it was counterproductive. For instance, it was serving as a recruitment tool for Al Qaeda against the Great Satan. Put simply, good guys don’t torture, and we were undermining our case that we were the good guys.
I’m not saying that the U.S. is Big Brother, even though we acted like him when we waterboarded terrorist Sheikh Mohammed 183 times in one month. We are better than that. But to make our way back to the light, we have to stop defending the practice. Now.
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