Abuse and Confession
Lee on Jan 10 2009 at 12:28 am | Filed under: Notes on the war
While I’m certainly not in disagreement that maintaining a ban on torture techniques in military interrogations should be an objective of the incoming Obama administration, Joe Klein’s pitch for it in his latest column takes us somewhere far beyond the overwrought. In it, Klein openly fantasizes about watching Donald Rumsfeld stripped naked and abused, as punishment for his part in incurring the permanent national stain of Abu Ghraib. How permanent is the stain according to Klein? He wants to erect a memorial monument to the victims of sleep deprivation on the National Mall. Yeah.
But this isn’t merely theatrical, it’s a confessional revenge fantasy. By his own admission, the mere mention in a newspaper of a prisoner standing in a stress position has Klein ready to torture former government officials as an act of retribution. It should be within his capacity to imagine that in a combat theater, inspiration for reciprocal abuses is even easier to obtain.
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I’ve said before and I’ll say again… no matter the fantasies of those who think that the military is about training young men to kill… the truth is that military discipline is about training young men to STOP.
I’m not at all surprised when people who do not understand that indulge in their own fantasies of torture or murder.
Stress positions cause pain. There is an argument to be made that employing them is torture. Sleep deprivation? If it doesn’t injure or cause pain, then it’s not torture. Waterboarding? Not torture. Environmental temperature manipulation (very cold, very hot)? There’s an argument to be made that this causes pain and is therefore torture. Anxiety inducement, superstition manipulation, hurt feelings–obviously not torture.
Personally I wish we’d just toss it all and go with a single protocol of prescribed sodium thiopental. Cause pain? It’s a barbiturate. Nor does it injure or induce psychosis. It’s reputation as an interrogation method is one of the best. And most importantly it will satisfy any need for any officials to employ other, more harmful methods in pursuit of intelligence. Then torture will not only be illegal, but there will also be no reason to torture in the first place, making it the best possible outcome.