We Don't Indulge
Torture. The deliberate destruction of a human soul. The witless determination to impose pain on another human being. As a tool of control, of compulsion. To compel someone to confess his or her involvement in schemes thought to be of potential harm to those who have incarcerated the unfortunate. Torture, as an employment of a physical process whereby one individual has control over life and death of another is as aged as human society.Most people cannot even comprehend that people could be as unconnected to other people, as icily removed and disinterested as to be able to inflict pain, deliberate pain, on another human being. These most certainly are social deviants, capable of delivering other people into hell. Psychopaths, most certainly. Of which the world has no dearth. They are everywhere, ready and willing to do their masters' bidding, be it the state or a dictator, a criminal or a religious order.
For it was the Church, in fact, that compromised itself in millennia past by its devotion to torture as a means by which recalcitrant non-believers could be brought to their senses, and ultimately, the compassion of God. Torture chambers were matter-of-factly built into the resource capabilities of most public buildings whose purpose was to apprehend, question, torture and either release or render to eternity.
Many countries of the world whose governments or rulers or dictators still view judicious torture as valuable accompaniments to apprehension and arrest, practise with impunity, albeit under international censure. The purpose being to extract admissions of guilt, of illegal collaboration, of actions inimical to the well-being of the state. These countries are not viewed by human rights groups who value compassion and freedom in the most kindly of lights.
But aren't communities of humans and individual human beings so utterly human? And isn't hypocrisy a prime component of human emotions gone awry?
Thus it is, to their great shame and disbelief, that the American people came face to face with the reality that some forms of torture meant to break the resolve and tear the dignity of people in suspect positions to shreds are still being practised by those who purport to represent their greater interests. Yet a spokesperson for the White house iterated and reiterated that "The policy of the United States is not to torture".
Well, there is torture, and then there is torture, to be sure. Forget relativism. On the other hand, why are we not entirely surprised when we learn that a truly criminally repressive regime practises the most horrendous types of torture? Which is to say torture going well beyond degrading the human spirit and wracking the human body; torture that celebrates the excesses of demented paranoia.
Still, it's more than slightly disconcerting when a country that proudly places itself at the vanguard of human achievement, a stalwart champion of freedom and egalitarianism, practises some forms of torture. Certainly sufficiently serious in nature to addle humans' brains and hinder their future health. Yes, the United States is labouring still under the after-effects of a traumatic shock to its existence.
The proof of the reality surfaced when a memorandum surfaced that revealed a green light given to the most pernicious kind of handling of people in military detention. The practices of head-slapping, simulated drowning, exposure to frigid temperatures - all done to debilitate people's sense of self, to instill fear, to compel disclosure. Confessions gained whose authenticity could never be proven.
Confessions given under the duress of desperation, in obvious efforts to halt torture imposed upon detainees. But it was all right, these were not ordinary prisoners. These were deemed to be outside the pale of protected conventions. Not to say that most officials in the U.S. Justice Department were complicit, for they were not. Going so far as to warn against the use of torture as being contrary to American values and ethics.
That shame would be brought upon the administration were the practise ever to be publicly revealed. As it has been. And is the administration ashamed of itself? Not bloody likely. For these, the administration contends, were not Geneva-convention-protected detainees. These were in another classification entirely, an ad hoc class of the unprotected: purported al-Qaeda.
On the other hand, reality would have it otherwise. These were detainees, most of whom were apprehended in a theatre of war, as being suspected al-Qaeda affiliates. Many of them were later proven to have no involvement with al-Qaeda, and quietly released. Some of them had suffered dreadful abuse in the process of determining what they represented.
Insignificant, irritating details.
Labels: Justice, Terrorism, That's Life
posted by Pieface @ Friday, October 05, 2007
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