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The Corruption That Is Torture
No doubt can any longer exist that the United States has engaged in torture. Recently released chunks of a report by the International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC) make it distressingly clear that our government has not only systematically tortured, but lied about it through barefaced denials: "We do not torture." As journalist Mark Danner, who leaked the report, points out: "The ICRC is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions, and when it uses those words"—words like torture or cruel and degrading—"they have the force of law." A strong prima facie case exists that war crimes of the worst order have been committed.
These crimes cannot be ignored without terrible consequences for our society. A Commission of Inquiry is now essential. The Commission, if it is to be effective, needs to be independent, nonpartisan and impartial. It needs to be composed of persons who are above the fray of politics and known for their ethical integrity. It needs the full cooperation of the executive branch. It probably also needs subpoena power. It should not grant blanket immunity, because its findings may well compel the Department of Justice to take action.
A Commission is no substitute for prosecution. The American people first deserve a full accounting of what has been done in their names. Yet without prosecution the future of the rule of law is in jeopardy. It would not be too much to say that the foundation of civilization is at stake, for torture is not just one issue among others. It is archetypal. It marks the clear bright line throughout history between civilization and barbarism, between dictatorship and constitutional government.
The time has come for our nation to engage in serious self-examination. The "secret" resort to torture has already corrupted our society. Once torture enters into a system, it is very hard to get it out. Torture always comes home. It does not remain confined to the remote corners of detention facilities in the war zone. It always returns to police stations, to state prisons, even to households. A young Presbyterian minister once told me that he had been trying to figure out all his life what had gone wrong with his father. Why was he always so violent and volatile at home? He eventually learned that in Vietnam his father had served in the Special Forces. After participating in the Phoenix Program involving CIA torture and assassinations, he was never the same.
Torture corrupts everything it touches. It corrupts the medical profession when, as Danner makes chillingly clear, torture doctors monitor the victim's vital signs so that pain can be inflicted to the breaking point without death. It corrupts the psychological profession when torture psychologists help "reverse engineer" techniques of abuse and recommend which ones will be effective. It corrupts the legal profession when torture lawyers draft government memos in torture's support and devise rationales for war crimes after the fact. It corrupts the media when craven journalists cannot call waterboarding by its proper name while consistently looking the other way. It corrupts the military by undermining the essentials of honor, professionalism and morale. It corrupts the "entertainment" industry by broadcasting forms of mass propaganda that glorify torturers, wonderfully transforming them from monsters into heroes. Not least, it corrupts our nation's religious communities, who by their silence and needless ignorance become torture's willing enablers.
As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel insisted, while few may be guilty, all are responsible. We must all must take responsibility for our nation's lapse from dignity into torture, from the rule of law into unspeakable crimes. At every level of our common life, we need a season of repentance and renewal. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln called our nation to repentance, to a confession of national sins. Now more than ever we need to do this again. The United States must never again allow itself to be driven by blinding fears and bitter resentments in responding to national tragedy. In a dangerous world torture only undermines our security, while also corrupting our souls.
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30 Comments so far
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Right On!!! George, you put a perfectly succinct article together with a perfect common sense perspective on JUSTICE. I hope your highly relevant and critically important recommendation for an independent, nonpartisan Commission inquiry into these criminal actions by the US government and it's agencies and agents come to pass in the very near future!! May JUSTICE prevail.
Brilliant!
An excellent listing of the corrupting effects of torture. The writer forgot one point, however, which must be shouted from the rooftops for those unaware of the true object of torture. Torture is not intended to gain information. It is intended to terrorize, deform, punish, and wreak revenge on people and those who care about them, in order to stamp out whatever political or social policy or attitude the torturer and/or those who order it consider contrary to their financial/class/political interests.
Jarhead
King Georgieboy das been a failure in everything he tried to do, Yet he prevailed in torture. A thing that a brain dead sick person would do. May he hear the screams in his sleep. Perhaps some day someone will capture him and take him to the people he violated. Let the world hear him scream.The U.S. will carry this shame before they enforce the law that cries out for justice. Remember Bushieboys fourth attorney general is sitting in the same chair.
No more commissions please, no more kicking the can down the road, the law is clear in this matter, we even have the head judge down at Gitmo on record as saying that torture took place. So, this is no longer a matter of finding out if a crime has been committed! President Obama needs to now stand up and stand behind the oath of office he took, by appointing an independent special prosecutor to legally resolve this mess created by a bunch of stooges working for dubya and dick. Think about this, not only will a special prosecutor find evidence of torture, a special prosecutor might also be led to evidence that reveals how this illegal war was concocted illegally in the first place.
The time for commissions has long passed.
"Benjamin Franklin was shown the new American constitution, and he said, 'I don't like it, but I will vote for it because we need something right now. But this constitution in time will fail, as all such efforts do. And it will fail because of the corruption of the people, in a general sense.' And that is what it has come to now, exactly as Franklin predicted."
- Gore Vidal -
What are we waiting for...flood the friggin WH with emails and storm DC with pots, pans and pitchforks!
Torture corrupts everything it touches. It corrupts the medical profession when, as Danner makes chillingly clear, torture doctors monitor the victim's vital signs so that pain can be inflicted to the breaking point without death.
**well it corrupted the medical profession as soon as the torture of living beings was being used to justify Nobel Peace prizes.
You cant be compassionate or altruistic if you think its ok to treat the innocent worse than the most despised criminals.
You dont help a homeless person by killing a family and taking their home. Ergo, you dont try to cure illness by victimizing others(non human animals).
As we see with embryonic research and Pfizer experiments in Africa, one opens to the door to the other.
"__ T O R T U R E __ C O R R U P T S __ E V E R Y T H I N G __ it touches"
Our rapacious appetite for materialism, global domination, and energy is peerless -- and torture is ALL about control and encasing the collective illusions of Americans ( not getting at truth ) .
"Justified" torture is one of many shields is their to protect the American people's identity illusions, and play to our "moral" aversion to such anti-Democratic pursuits ( we are the "best" ever ), while we decimate another country's innocents in murder, suffering and mayhem .
The crass and wicked imperialism of corporapist Ameriprise has become exposed, providing a rippling of shuddering revulsion that's awakening US from our somnambulant delusions -- we are a HEDONISTIC society which condones "implicitly" any means justified to maintain our precipitous growth and apparent wealth.
We are caught upon and clinging to the craggy remnants of that soaring delusion, and then find ourselves tenuously grasping outward hoping for better illusions to fill our vacuous wings.
But so depressingly, that life affirming and sobering truth is below us -- in the dangerous ravines and abyss of our forgotten evil acts.
Our complicity in the evil empire's avaricious wreckage of desolation and death, draws us downward more powerfully than gravity. We can cling to and resist to our moral demise, or fall to lovingly embrace the inevitable awakening to reconciliation, forgiveness, and eventual re-birth to learn once again to soar.
We must learn to
[ _______ M A K E __ B E T T E R _______ ]
[ _______ C _ H _ O _ I _ C _ E _ S _______ ]
Remember
"L O V E _ is _ t h e _ a n t i d o t e _ t o _ F E A R"
Namaste
[ _____ P O N E R O L O G Y _☠_ E V I L ___ of ___ P O L I T I C S _____ ]
We me must transcend our flawed" … perception of the truth about the real environment, and in particular, the understanding of what a healthy human personality is and how such personalities are nurtured, ceases first of all to be the highest social priority, then ceases to be generally understood, and finally ceases even to be remembered as a part of the inventory of human knowledge."
And get over the idea that "In-depth understanding [is] "unfashionable" or even despised." We must again learn to embrace "… the search for truth [that] reveals "inconvenient", that is, morally embarrassing facts "
We must ALL fight the adamant conditioning of
"avoidance of morally embarrassing facts … [as] it ceases to be a conscious process and gets relegated to the subconscious; that is, it becomes a habit." We have a "contagious [addition]" to "a socially accepted habit, the "in" thing to do. "The 'very best people' never discuss such things, and certainly not in public," "
As we dangle precipitously from our mountainous delusions,
"Reasoning to draw valid conclusions becomes impossible because of the gaps left by the suppressed "inconvenient" facts. The subconscious compensates by substituting morally less embarrassing "premises" so as to be able to continue to draw conclusions, although the conclusions now drawn are, necessarily, false. This is the chronic avoidance of the crux of the matter"
We must fight against the tendency to
" … grow perceptibly more egotistic, … [as] the society as a whole [becomes] more emotional and hysterical. There is a great deal of confusion about values and such societies grow to be seen as arrogant and hedonistic."
The ultimate moral separation is otherwise inevitable,
" When the deviation from reality becomes great enough, the person or the society becomes pathological, and murder sprees or senseless world wars and bloody revolutions are in the offing."
" In short,
during good times, moral, intellectual and personality values devolve to the point where a society is ripe for manipulation by snake-charmers and con-men of Rasputin-like charisma.
Individuals become emotionally volatile, egotistical, and intolerant of other cultures.
The resulting suffering necessitate great mental and physical strength to fight for existence and human reason. Slowly, what has been lost is relearned.
Difficult times give rise to the values necessary to conquer evil and produce better times."
Maybe it is time for countries like: Sweden,Denmark,Norway,Venezuela ect. that don't torture, to invade America and bring us democracy and regime change!
The worst form of torture is something that's never called torture, and it's routinely carried out in prisons all over the country. It's euphemistically called "solitary confinement." See CD article from 3/25 - Atul Gawande: "Hellhole: Solitary Confinement as Torture."
When deprived of contact with others, the human body begins to break down, not just mentally, but physically as well. People who have experienced being tortured in various horrible ways still say that the worst torture of all was the solitary confinement.
In this country some 25,000 prisoners are being tortured in special supermax prisons designed to isolate. Add to that the numbers of prisoners in the solitary confinement areas of the rest of the prisons, and there's a staggering number of people being silently tortured in this country every day.
Torture is the dirty magazine under mankind's mattress. The only time it has seen the light of day has been in societies (tribal backwaters, the Roman Empire) in which the practice of torture has become a normative part of public life. For the rest of us it is practiced in secret, in cellars and other deniable venues. To pretend it isn't so is easy enough, since the pornographic side of human experience is universally repressed by mutual agreement. To see Bush stand up in front of the cameras and say "We do not torture," is identical to your kid vehemently claiming he has no idea how that Hustler magazine got into his sock drawer. Considering what else might be in there, most parents might be willing to take his word for it.
Absence of torture and homicide and mayhem and perversion have not historically been the hallmarks of civilization as the author claims. There are civilizations that torture, civilizations that do not torture, and civilizations that torture and pretend they do not. The Romans were a nasty bunch from the outset, and even their decadence lasted longer than America (not exactly a paragon of righteousness) has been around to date. Barbarism is viable.
The sad lesson of these soon-to-be-reburied revelations has been that we are not a pretty species, and that a universe absent such an autophagous disaster as we have become would be a far happier place. Alas, alligators were adapted to survive, so hominids also will probably manage to gnaw their way into some kind of future.
A number of similarly ignored writers - Freud, Fromm, Norman Brown - spelled it out for us long ago. Perversion and cruelty are part of our DNA. They very nearly define mankind and his civilizations. They aren't going to go away with a few mea culpas and selective prosecutions. My bet is that the dirty magazine will go back under the mattress where it has always resided, and that this will have no impact whatsoever on the course of human history.
You go too far V O X , when you assert "Perversion and cruelty are part of our DNA."
I will "gladly" acknowledge that such conditioning is deeply intertwined with thinking and learned behaviors, related to survival -- but is hardly encoded molecularly in our DNA.
Specifically, we must learn that the human BEING, when threatened with oblivion, fear, or lessor stressors -- is renown for automatic reactions. The seat of automatic thinking that drives our near autonomous actions -- is OUR EGO.
The current failing of our global financial institutions is triggering SURVIVAL thinking, that often is counterproductive and all too automatic.
The encasement of today's societal structures in layers of EGOIC bullshit is the underlying cause of many disasters.
INDIVIDUALLY, we must fight our own monsters -- to allow us to reach outward effectively and gain the advantages of community organization and the steel edge of power in numbers.
Effective techniques include OUR cultivation of PRESENCE, reverence and communing with NATURE, GRACE, FORGIVENESS, and seeking increasing CONSCIOUSNESS.
SAD RESIGNATION of the intrinsic state of being human as errantly being either malignant, perverse, or cruel -- is vastly ineffective and counterproductive to OUR required transformation.
We must look forward the future of unlimited possibilities, or we will likely perish re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Our greatest challenge is to create a new mythology ( or way of perceiving ) and community of thinking that encourages solutions, sustains our inner needs, and provides US HOPE for our future.
Namaste
Interesting points, npwr, actually I don't think vox is going too far. I don't know if anyone can isolate a gene for cruelty, but I used to feel the same way you do, until I visited the Museum of Torture Instruments in Mexico City. I will never be the same again. It was an eye-opener to see how recently some of these hideous instruments had been used. I believe that humans are indeed wired for cruelty and torture and that is why it is so important for each generation to recognize it, give it the correct name, and fight to stop it. Horrifying isn't it, when our own president, with all the evidence that exists, denies it. Namaste
It way be a difference of only by degree, but I believe that egoic thinking is a reptilian lower level primitive ( survival ) portion of the brain.
NeoCONing propagandist and PSYOPS experts gleefully run massive campaigns of FEAR and HATE messages and memes to enthrall the masses into controlled subservience and to submit to authority ( the natural reaction to FEAR is to appeal to father figures ).
Humankind's eventual grace and hope is in overcoming these egoic messages that fire relentlessly, while comparing everything to everything else, w/o regards to morality and kindness. The urge to righteousness ( vs. kindness ) , and matching invalidating and shaming of another -- is a clear track record for the end of days.
DENIAL is part of the egoic defenses ( the world of forms ), and PRESENCE / CONSCIOUSNESS / STILLNESS / LIFE are part of our equally inhabited world of the formless ( ineffable ) -- but the later has yet to be scientifically validated ( which is literally impossible for the study of forms and definitions, to reach an understanding about something w/o form ).
The end of society is about the surrender of the world as seen as ONLY form-based, and the new CONSCIOUSNESS is based on an equal basis for form and the formless ( one supports the other, w/o the soundless there could be no sound -- w/o space between object, how could there be objects ? )
Namaste
P . S. I also was shocked violently to read of thousands of brutal and despicable tortures used in "The Inquisition", which was one of many techniques of putting people into survival mode, under the thumb and branding iron of "hot" power. I believe that some 6 million woman are now thought to have been horrendously murdered in those terrifying days, and indubitably that record still rings loudly in our subconscious and collective unconsciousness -- the suffering literally and figuratively lives on.
A U R O R A,
Perhaps an example of the clarity and possibilities unleashed with the death of egoic control of one's brain is well illustrated by
Jill Bolte Taylor My Stroke of Insight.....
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
Jill's stupendously amazing experience exemplifies what others have only dreamed of. Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain ( neuro ) scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story.
From my point of view, her 20 min talk explains her detailed experience as the left-brain shut down piece by piece, allowing her to experience the right-brain function unencumbered by egoic nonsense.
She describes the experience and grandiose possibility of nirvana right here on earth, when the ego ( linear thinking ) is shut off and the formless functioning of the right hemisphere took over her consciousness.
Namaste
Sioux Rose
BRAVO, NPWR! Poor Vox has allowed the macabre tone of our times to limit his vision. I'm glad you answered, as very often in this forum, I have done my best to explain the difference between behaviors enculturated over centuries, and what is innate to the human potential. So long as societies encourage the vile traits, we will see more of them; but this hardly indicates the breadth and width of the spectrum that human expression is heir/heiress to.
Perfect article! Thank you for helping the world see what you do!
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/speedtest.html
Jeevee
Yesterday we saw a TV shot of Obama saying, "The United States does not torture." What can we expect from this man??
It seems such a common sense issue that this administrations unwillingness to see justice served boggles the mind. This nation will wear the stain of this issue for as long as it will take to see justice served, or forever, whichever comes first.
Civilization in attempting to sustain its city states has always included violence, rape, abuse, torture as the means to over come indigenous peoples,their land and their resources. The civilized are inculcated from birth into this abusive behavior of production and consumption( turning the living into the dead).
To continue to operate on the premise that civilization is redeemable and that our way of living is sustainable without violence is pathological denial.
There will be no trials, no punishment as the civilized who control this culture operate in a hierarchy were violence done to those lower than themselves is kept invisible or fully rationalized. When violence is done to property or persons by those lower in the hierarchy it is unimaginable and met with extreme force.
The civilized are to share some responsibility for the actions of those at the top of the hierarchy as it they themselves who ignore these acts, whether taking place next door or in some other region of the empire, for they would rather hold on to this unsustainable way of death than change.
Your premise is missing a crucial distinction, about the level of civilization that we have achieved.
When asked about __ W e s t e r n __ C i v i l i z a t i o n __,
Mahatma Gandhi replied :
"I think that it is a good idea"
Namaste
So Gandhi did, and that was his view of his world, he also despised his wife and disowned his eldest son. As an uncivilized human Gandhi's ideas have no place. Love does not imply pacifism.
You haven't seen my other posts then.
Who you call those running civilization ( the pathocracy ), are more likely stark raving psychopaths -- which I hazard to suggest is anti-civilized -- thereby tilting the balance towards Un-civilized Western "Civilization".
We are all responsible for US government use of torture? Well not exactly. Some of us didn't vote for the 2 parties that connived together to implement the open use of torture. Some of us didn't vote for the 2 parties that have always used covert torture in the nation's jails. Some of us have opposed the 2 parties' foreign policy that has implemented torture use in other countries through foreign aid. Some of us do not vote for these 2 parties EVER.
Voting is not absolution, one must recognize ones duty to her nation and act to change that which is wrong. Exercising ones right to vote every two years is not enough.
These are some well-chosen words, and it's refreshing that a clergyman recognizes the moral dimensions of this heinous crime. The vast majority of America's conservative Christians endorse and support torture and aggressive war, and it's a pleasure to see an alternative, if minority, vision of Christian morality.
Someone is not waiting for commissions or DOJ or special prosecutor.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/world/europe/29spain.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss