Thoughts on torture

It’s not often that I get comments from people I don’t know, so I was pleased when Rick from Iowa left me a note regarding Steven King’s thoughts on waterboarding. I sent him a long letter in response, which I felt merited a full post, even though this isn’t a political blog. I am open to dialog, so I hope you’ll leave a comment with your well-reasoned arguments/response to my letter. (Any ad hominem attacks will be promptly deleted.) Start with his comment, then come back here and read my letter to him.

Hi Rick,

Thanks so much for your comment. As a trained military person, with experience being waterboarded, you definitely have a unique point of view from which to argue. Since you didn’t give any details, I’d be curious to hear more on how you think waterboarding our enemies might have saved your life. 

In the mean time, you and I will disagree on whether torture should be implemented to save American lives.

I may be warm, dry, and safe, but that doesn’t detract from my ability to logically assess whether torture should be permitted. You try to criticize my stance because I haven’t actually been waterboarded, but you have to know that’s an invalid way to argue. (Attacking my circumstances as a way to undermine my argument is called an argumentum ad hominem.)

Since you didn’t fill in any detailed reasons for why the US should waterboard or otherwise torture our enemies, I’ll fill in a few justifications I’ve heard from other people and take it from there. If you have any more reasons you think torture should be allowed, let me know and I’ll do my best to respond to those as well.

“Our enemies do it, so we should be allowed to do it.”
Hmmm...Isn’t the respect that we show to our enemies one of the things that separates us from them? We can’t claim to be good people fighting evil if we’re doing the same reprehensible things they’re doing.

“But they murder American citizens; they deserve it.”
Well, so do serial killers who also happen to be U.S. citizens. Aren’t these people the enemy of the public too? Following your logic, Superman should just kill the bad guys he catches instead of putting them in jail to face justice. Again, it’s what makes Americans different from people like Saddam Hussein. Our enemies stand trial; we don’t torture and kill them. An embrace of torture is completely inconsistent with our commitment to equal justice and the rule of law.

“There’s a ticking time bomb. The need for information outweighs the moral and ethical arguments against torture.”
This one’s my favorite. Ask any trained interrogator, and he/she will tell you that torture provides unreliable intelligence. (The Navy’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE) training you underwent probably told you this.) People under duress tell you what they THINK you want to hear, not necessarily the truth. If you don’t believe me check out the 325-page study, sponsored by the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon’s Counterintelligence Field Activity: http://www.fas.org/irp/dni/educing.pdf.

If that doesn’t convince you, or you don’t have time to read it, let me offer exhibit B - the case of Manadel al-Jamadi, an Iraqi deemed a “high-value” target by the CIA. After being beaten to an extent that he had several broken ribs, he was subjected to a form of crucifixion known as “Palestinian hanging.” Forty-five minutes later, he was dead, never having revealed whatever vital, ticking-bomb information his American interrogator was seeking. Or how about exhibit C - the torture-extracted confession of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, an al Qaeda captive. Remember him? He was the one who provided the only information the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State repeatedly claimed was “credible evidence” that Hussein had trained al Qaeda to use WMD. Our very own Defense Intelligence Agency questioned the reliability of the confession because it was likely obtained using torture. In January 2004, al-Libi recanted his “confession,” and a month later, the CIA recalled all intelligence reports based on his statements.

“But only the worst of the worst will be subjected to torture.”
Wrong again! Not only is that assumption unfounded, based upon the widespread abuses in Iraq, it was tried and abandoned by the Israelis. When Israel experimented with “torture lite,” supposedly reserved for ticking-bomb circumstances, it was not long before 85% of all Palestinian detainees were being given the harshest treatment allowed. The capability to finely calibrate torture has eluded every democratic government which has tried it.

The inescapable fact is that America’s standing in the world, especially in the Middle East, has never been lower. The Arab street may not always grasp the finer points of separation of powers or proportional representation; but everyone, everywhere, comprehends hypocrisy, and judges us for ours. If you truly believe that the value of violently coerced information has been worth the plummeting drop in America’s world stature, or that such mis-information is worth the clear and present endangerment of captured Americans, it’s time to justify the claimed value of torture to the nation in whose name it’s being done.

Sincerely,
Carry

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