Cancer of torture at Abu Ghraib has metastasized

Cancer of torture at Abu Ghraib has metastasized
David R. Irvine

Last Sunday's Tribune Opinion section featured the grim story of Army Capt. Brian Freeman's capture and execution last January in Karbala, as wrenchingly told by his mother, who lives in Mendon, Utah. The same paper reported three more U.S. soldiers missing after an attack on their convoy. When other missing troops have been found, dead, their bodies show signs of mutilation and torture.
In the three years since the cancerous photographs at Abu Ghraib came to light, the Army's acceptance of and resort to torture have made combat service in Iraq that much more dangerous for our forces there. We cannot claim Geneva Convention protection for our own troops because we have ourselves abandoned the Geneva protection due the Iraqis.
The president and vice president have repeatedly denied that America tortures prisoners, but they choose their words carefully when they refuse to explain or deny the use of "unconventional" interrogation techniques which, by any reasonable definition, amount to torture.
Recently, a group of retired flag officers began quietly meeting with the 2008 presidential candidates in an effort to help the candidates understand the stakes created by America's wrong-headed resort to torture. One well-known candidate stated the dilemma this way: "How can I take an absolute position opposing torture when many people believe that it works and that it's worth it if it prevents another 9/11?"
The response of the generals and admirals was unequivocating: "It doesn't work, and the belief by a few that it does has cost us the respect of the world and our moral stature as a nation. As president you have to take a clear, no-exceptions stand against torture in any situation, because if you don't, that moral ambiguity will inevitably work its way down the chain of command, and every private will conclude that if the president sees exceptions for ticking time bombs, every improvised explosive device planted along my convoy route is for me a real ticking bomb. Once you open that door by so much as a crack, you have lost the ability to control what your Army will do."
This week's Army Times reported the results of an Army-commissioned survey of Army and Marine combat troops in Iraq. According to those survey results, more than 40 percent believe torture should be allowed if it would save the life of a comrade. Fewer than half the polled soldiers and one-third of the polled Marines said that all noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect.
Nearly 40 percent said that torture should be allowed to gather information about insurgents, and 17 percent said that all noncombatants should be treated as insurgents.
Abu Ghraib's cancer has metastasized. The issue for this broken Army isn't just whether it can control violence in Iraq; it's also whether commanders have lost control of their troops' commitment to Army values and common humanity.

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Jack Bauer is a psychopath.

 

It just means the end is getting closer

 

They are not "high pressure techniques". That expression is newspeak so politicians don't have to use the word "torture" and sound like animals. The "high pressure techniques" that Bauer uses include:

• Beating
• Suffocation
• Electrocution
• Drugging
• Psychological abuse
• Cold-blooded murder
• and more

 

There's no moral dilemma. If one has to become a bad guy to defeat a bad guy, one bad guy remains.

"Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." - Romans 12:21​