Rosa Brooks: America Tortures (yawn)

from the LA Times, via Common Dreams:


Published on Friday, February 23, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times
America Tortures (yawn)
In just a few years we've grown disturbingly comfortable with the fact that the U.S. practices torture.
by Rosa Brooks

It was much like the usual Nigerian e-mail scam, but it had a dispiriting twist.

"Greetings," went the e-mail, "I am Captain Smith Scott of the US Marine Force … in Baghdad-Iraq. On the 10th day of February 2007 … we captured three (3) of the Terrorists…. In the process of torture they confessed being rebels for late Ayman al-Zawahiri and took us to a cave in Karbala…. Here we recovered…. some US Dollars amounting to $10.2M…. I am in keen need of a Reliable and Trustworthy person like you who would receive, secure and protect these boxes containing the US Dollars for me up on till my assignment elapses here in Iraq."

Apparently, savvy e-mail scammers now assume that a reference to U.S. Marines torturing prisoners lends credibility to their come-ons.

Well, why not? Thanks to Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, "extraordinary renditions" and "black sites," many people now take for granted the image of the American as torturer. At least 100 prisoners have been killed while in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many more have been beaten, humiliated and abused. Still others have been secretly handed over to our even less-scrupulous friends in various Middle Eastern intelligence services. And though the vast majority of our troops and officials abide by both the spirit and the letter of U.S. and international laws, such abusive tactics have been authorized by officials at the highest level of the U.S. government.

In November 2001, 66% of Americans said they "could not support government-sanctioned torture of suspects" as part of the war on terrorism. And when photos of abuses at Abu Ghraib surfaced in the spring of 2004, the U.S. news media treated it — rightly — as a major scandal. In October 2005, the U.S. Senate voted 90-9 in support of legislation prohibiting the inhumane treatment of prisoners, sponsored by Arizona Sen. John McCain. ....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0223-20.htm

is absolutely astounding. It is certainly what helps the torturers to continue their work. And mixed in is probably a tang of vengeance, a warm pleasure in the thought that the "bad guys" are being made to pay, and also that the rest of the world is being taught to fear the USA, which will stop at nothing to protect itself. Heaven forfend that anyone should find fault with that!

That my country will attempt to explain away - and has attempted to explain away - torture is something I will never, ever, come to terms with or make peace with...

Yet it does seem some people have done just that...accepted it. Almost an oh well, yes, it's happening but we need to just move on and try better next time. Which I find callously dismissive of the damage America's war crimes have caused people.

Some cling to the words "after Bush is gone", words that have all but become an incantation for them, like it will all just magically go away once Bush is out of office.

Some want to just "move on" and pretend what is happening can be framed in some sort of "context of the times" rationalization. As if anything at all happening now excuses or could ever excuse that America has a war criminal President - who.is.still.in.office. - long after his crimes have been exposed.

Some will cling to the "few bad apples" lie...a safe lie that allows people to believe it wasn't the government - it was just a few bad people.


It's the pretending and the lies that sicken me most - for it will be the pretending and the lies that will allow my government to get away with war crimes.

Pretending something is true to avoid the ugliness of the actual truth is nothing more than propping up a lie.

To my way of thinking, anyone that allows the lies to stand is complicit in the cover-up.

We must never - ever - allow the lies to go unchallenged.

Even if it takes years - and I resent with every fiber of my being that it could - the guilty must be brought to justice.

I resent it because much like torture shouldn't be government policy, the victims of that government policy shouldn't have to wait years for justice...more especially from a nation that hypes itself as some sort of great liberator and beacon of human rights....but then a nation that truly was a beacon of human rights wouldn't torture..

an article about US torture crimes fails to rouse much outrage...

..."In this week's New Yorker, Jane Mayer reported on the efforts of human rights groups, interrogation experts and military leaders to persuade the show's producers to stop glamorizing torture. A few days after her story was posted on the New Yorker's website, executive producer Howard Gordon announced that "24" will indeed have fewer torture scenes in the future — but not because of the complaints. The reason for the shift? Torture "is starting to feel a little trite," Gordon explained. "The idea of physical coercion or torture is no longer a novelty or surprise."

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