Torture: Another Crimson Spot on the Quilt of American History

Torture: Another Crimson Spot on the Quilt of American History

By: Andrew G. Ramdeholl

The recent exposure of the human abuses carried out in the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo detention facilities has thrown the debate on torture into the international spotlight. Fueling the fire is the admittance by President Bush that he had knowledge of such dealings. (Crawford) Some say that its ok to torture suspected terrorists if it yields information saving innocent lies. The fact, however, is that that argument is riddled with holes in the sense of logic and humanitarian concerns.

Those that are in favor of terror usually bring up several main points. One argument is that terrorists would not take pause to harm or torture us, so we should treat them as they would treat us. Another point commonly made is that they're the monsters that have done barbaric things; so they don't deserve to be treated as humans. Then you have the "ticking time-bomb" scenario, certainly as constrained of a condition as can be. Do these arguments really justify using torture to extract information?

Its true that terrorist have done a lot to harm not only Americans, but many innocent people around the world. After all, they've tortured hostages and beheaded innocent civilians. So why should we not treat them the same? The answer to that question is simple. The answer is that because we aren't them. Every human being, we as Americans believe, should be treated fairly and with respect. What separate us from the terrorists are the principles, as Americans, that we live by. By torturing a human being, any human being, we bring ourselves down to their level.

Even George Washington himself shunned torture in any form. David Hackett Fisher wrote in his book, "Washington's Crossing," that some American soldiers wanted to do to the British what the British did to POW's. Fisher writes that Washington "often reminded his men that they were an army of liberty and freedom, and the rights of humanity for which they were fighting extended even to their enemies." If we embrace torture, physical or psychological, we give up what it is to be American.

Furthermore, justifying torture by saying that these people are monsters or animals who have done evil things is flawed. The problem with that is to be evil, someone must be human, because being evil is a purely human trait. When an animal kills another animal, we don't think of that animal as being evil. In the same way, saying that a terrorist isn't human or that they're animals is absolving them of wrongdoing. Since these people are still human beings, no matter what they've done, they should be treated by us as such.

This all comes back to the principles of America. As Andrew Sullivan pointed out in his article, "the Declaration of Independence did not restrict its endorsement of freedom to merely those lucky enough to find themselves on US soil, but to all human beings, wherever they are in the world, simply because they are human." It doesn't have any restrictions on whom or what kind of person has rights, it says all people have inalienable rights.

Nevertheless, if we catch a terrorist who has just planted and armed a nuclear bomb in a Manhattan, surely we should use every measure to extract information from that person to save millions of lives. Well, the fact is, first of all, this is extremely unlikely to ever happen, because catching someone and realizing what he's a part of is hard enough. However, if this were to happen, who says that information that we get would be useful? As Sullivan makes a point of, a prisoner is going to tell you whatever he can, whether its true or not, in order for the pain to stop. Intelligence obtained this way will likely lead to valuable resources and man-power being used up. In the end, the method of torture is likely to not provide anything useful, and in this case, we've betrayed American values for nothing.

Even when we do capture suspected terrorists, we aren't completely sure if they have plans to hurt the innocent. In fact, the commander at Abu Ghraib, Janis Karpinski, said that up to 90% of the detainees, many of whom where tortured, we innocent and had done nothing wrong. The torture and abuse of these prisoners exemplifies how once you allow torture in one constrained circumstance, it spreads, and it starts to be used without constraint and takes its own form. The methods use to obtain information at Guantanamo Bay spread to Abu Ghraib. General Geoffrey Miller was sent to Abu Ghraib to replicate methods used at Guantanamo, but instead of being used rarely, it became used very frequently, without contraints, and took its own form.

Using torture can also backfire on us. Take for instance the case of Nick Berg. Nick Berg was a civilian businessman from the US working for in Iraq. He was kidnapped and beheaded by terrorists seeking revenge after news of widespread abuses broke. This isn't the only way it can backfire on us though. Our belief in freedom and democracy is what separates us from extremists in the minds of Arabs who are sympathetic to our cause. If they see that we torture people just as terrorists do and furthermore torture people who we aren't even sure are terrorists, it removes the margin that separates us. Then, in their minds, they would have just as much to fear from us as they would from fundamentalists.

It all comes back to American values and principles, the principles or freedom, liberty, and justice. These are the principles that our country was based upon; and though these are different times, those principles still apply now. As David Fischer wrote, "American leaders believed it was not enough to win the war. They also had to win in a way that was consistent with the values of their society and the principles of their cause. One of their greatest achievements…was to manage the war in a manner that was true to the expanding humanitarian ideals of the American Revolution." We must, in the same way, stick our values now in the War on Terror, as our forefathers did in the Revolutionary War 230 years ago. As Andrew Sullivan said, "If we legalize torture, even under the most constrained condition, we have given up a large part of the idea that is America."

I say to America now, should we tolerate the torture of any human being, we and our descendants will look back on this with deep regret. It will join slavery, as well as the Trail of Tears, as another crimson spot on the beautiful quilt that is American history.

References:

The Guardian UK. “American beheaded in revenge for torture”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/may/12/iraq.alqaida

Banbury, Jen. Salon.com. “Rummy’s Scapegoat”
http://dir.salon.com/story/books/int/2005/11/10/karpinski/index.html

The New Yorker. “Torture at Abu Ghraib”
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/05/10/040510fa_fact

Fischer, David Hackett. “Washington’s Crossing”
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/05/10/040510fa_fact

Sulivan, Andrew. “The Abolition of Torture” Taking Sides

CRAWFORD, JAN GREENBURG, HOWARD L. ROSENBERG and ARIANE de
VOGUE. ABC News. Bush Aware of Advisers' Interrogation Talks. http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/story?id=4635175&page=1