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International Herald Tribune
December 21, 2004

Torture: Shock, Awe and the Human Body

by William Pfaff

A HISTORIAN in the future, or a moralist, is likely to deem the Bush administration's enthusiasm for torture the most striking aspect of its war against terrorism.

This started early. Proposals to authorize torture were circulating even before there was anyone to torture. Days after the Sept. 11 attacks, the administration made it known that the United States was no longer bound by international treaties, or by American law and established U.S. military standards, concerning torture and the treatment of prisoners. By the end of 2001, the Justice Department had drafted memos on how to protect military and intelligence officers from eventual prosecution under existing U.S. law for their treatment of Afghan and other prisoners.

In January 2002, the White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales (who is soon to become attorney general), advised George W. Bush that it could be done by fiat. If the president simply declared "detainees" in Afghanistan outside the protection of the Geneva conventions, the 1996 U.S. War Crimes Act - which carries a possible death penalty for Geneva violations - would not apply.

Those who protested were ignored, though the administration declared it would abide by the "spirit" of the conventions. Shortly afterward, the CIA asked for formal assurance that this pledge did not apply to its agents.

In March 2003, a Defense Department legal task force concluded that the president was not bound by any international or federal law on torture. It said that as commander in chief, he had the authority "to approve any technique needed to protect the nation's security."

Subsequent legal memos to civilian officials in the White House and Pentagon dwelt in morbid detail on permitted torture techniques, for practical purposes concluding that anything was permitted that did not (deliberately) kill the victim.

What is this all about? The FBI, the armed forces' own legal officers, bar associations and other civil law groups have protested, as have retired intelligence officers and civilian law enforcement officials.

The United States has never before officially practiced torture. It was not deemed necessary in order to defeat Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. Its indirect costs are enormous: in their effect on the national reputation, their alienation of international opinion, and their corruption of the morale and morality of the American military and intelligence services.

Torture doesn't even work that well. An indignant FBI witness of what has gone on at the Guantánamo prison camp says that "simple investigative techniques" could produce much information the army is trying to obtain through torture.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Bush administration is not torturing prisoners because it is useful but because of its symbolism. It originally was intended to be a form of what later, in the attack on Iraq, came to be called "shock and awe." It was meant as intimidation. We will do these terrible things to demonstrate that nothing will stop us from conquering our enemies. We are indifferent to world opinion. We will stop at nothing.

In that respect, it is like the attack on Falluja last month, which - destructive as it was - was fundamentally a symbolic operation. Any insurgent who wanted to escape could do so long before the much-advertised attack actually began.

Its real purpose was exemplary destruction: to deliver a message to all of Iraq that this is what the United States can do to you if you continue the resistance. It was collective punishment of the city's occupants for having tolerated terrorist operations based there.

The administration's obsession with shock and awe is a result of its misunderstanding of the war it is fighting, which is political and not military. America's dilemma is a very old one.

It is dealing with politically motivated revolutionaries, in the case of Al Qaeda, and nationalist and sectarian insurgents in the case of Iraq. It has a conventional army, good for crushing cities. But the enemy is not interested in occupying cities or defeating American armies. Its war is for the minds of Muslims.

Destroying cities and torturing prisoners are things you do when you are losing the real war, the war your enemies are fighting. They are signals of moral bankruptcy. They destroy the confidence and respect of your friends, and reinforce the credibility of the enemy.

© 2004 International Herald Tribune
 

CURRENT DEATHTOLL IN IRAQ and COST 
The Face of war, mass murder and genocide - Civilian casualties - families murdered in their own homes - during the US assault on Fallujah (Warning: graphic images)
Ban on torture overruled in Pentagon
Bush Claimed Right to Waive Torture Laws
Lawyer for one guard claims picture shows his client taking orders from others - will generals take the stand?
Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz says U.S. Needs Improved Torture Tactics
Okay for some "Bundeswehrprofessor [Michael Wolffsohn, jüdisch, Israeli-Bürger] räsoniert über Vorzüge der Folter": German professor Michael Wolffsohn calls for use of torture | Summoned before his minister
Expanding the Taguba report: Israel's role in training US army in torture techniques
Danish government accuses British troops Danish medics witnessed Iraqi prisoner die after interrogation
Reuters agency released shocking details of US torture of three of its journalists
Israel's involvement in Iraq: has torture experts at Abu Ghraib Jail
Israeli medical association: OK to break fingers of Palestinian prisoners during interrogation
Amnesty International reports, Israel Supreme Court to Rule on Torture and Holding of Lebanese Hostages as Pawns
Human rights lawyers argue that Israel's torture of Palestinians is illegal (but sometimes necessary)
Lipstadt's Witness Bernie Farber is Revealed as Torture Apologist
Carmi GillonIsraeli torture of Palestinian prisoners seized in the notorious Khiam prison in southern Lebanon
Sydney Morning Herald reports: US creating torture centers in non-US locations "It allows us to get information from terrorists in a way we can't do on US soil."
Robert Fisk reports: Inside an Israeli torturers' den, manacles lie abandoned
Danish opposition to the appointment of Israeli torture chief, Ambassador Carmi Gillon (right)
Torture of children by USA's closest allies
 

The above item is reproduced without editing other than typographical
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