Torture is reprehensible. To engage in such barbarism is morally beneath civilized nations. It violates international law. It puts our troops in peril if they are captured abroad. It is harmful in its propaganda effect, especially in an age of global information. Hell, torture is an ineffective tool anyway.
These are all true and so, with good reason, President Obama has taken steps to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay due to its stigma. Whether the term “enhanced interrogation techniques” used there is really an Orwellian euphemism for torture is debatable, but perception is reality, so in the last analysis Obama made the right call and deserves credit.
It should have ended there. Instead, the Obama administration bowed to the petty temptation of sticking it to its predecessor. By prematurely declassifying the so-called “torture memos” from the Bush era, the administration has requested that we be absolved from our sins of the past. This unfortunately constitutes an admission that we did in fact engage in torture.
While I am ecstatic about this transparent attempt to curry favor from our European friends, I do not see any tangible benefits that will follow. While they might forgive us of our purported sins, most Europeans will continue to be a la carte members of NATO, only contributing so long as their individual contingents don’t have to get their hands dirty in Afghanistan.
Then there are the costs.
The Obama administration failed to anticipate the crescendo of media coverage which has ensued. It has disrupted the administration’s ability to keep the public spotlight on its efforts to provide a remedy to our ailing economy.
This lack of foresight is curious, but the costs in terms of the memos’ negative propaganda impact on our ongoing war against violent extremism are where the real danger lies.
For counterinsurgencies, the realm of information has always been a critical battlefield. The French tortured FLN insurgents unabashedly in the Algerian war during the 1950s, sparking public revulsion and a further internationalization of the insurgency. In fact, the historian Alistair Horne directly linked this to the French defeat.
Fast-forward five decades to Iraq, where several Americans on the midnight watch at Abu Ghraib prison desecrated military law and tortured and humiliated Iraqi captives. On top of this, they were dumb enough to take photos, which naturally leaked, causing a justifiable scandal.
An outraged Pentagon Chief, Donald Rumsfeld, quickly recognized the propaganda boost this gave the enemy, and-believe it or not-he very appropriately took measures to prevent such insubordination in the future. Lesson learned, or so we thought.
If the Abu Ghraib fallout was a boon to our enemies, then certainly a tacit admission from the president himself that we sanctioned torture in the larger sense-that is, with the support of senior Bush administration officials as opposed to isolated G.I.s–is a gift with a bow on it.
Frankly, this amounts to Santa Claus dumping his whole sleigh full of gifts not only on Sadrists in the back alleys of Najaf, but more significantly on al Qaeda fanatics burrowed in the caves of the Wazir hinterlands who still seek to foment a global insurgency against both moderate Islam and the West.
Even without an al Qaeda spin, this disclosure reaffirms the impression around the world that this is how Americans behave. Consequently, this poisonous seed-that the U.S. confessed to its policy of torturing Islamic holy warriors-will be implanted into the heads of many jobless young men studying in madrassas across the Islamic belt.
This will then serve only to bring in more recruits, hampering Western efforts to defeat this exact phenomenon.
Although the Obama administration shot itself in the foot, there still is time to cauterize this wound before it becomes infected. So long as the topic of torture remains on our political agenda, it will continue to scroll across the ticker of Al Jazeera.
President Obama should therefore cut our losses by removing it from the public discourse. He could start by unequivocally ending these nonsensical discussions of prosecuting former Bush administration officials. If this would offend the delicate sensibilities of his Moveon.org constituency, then that is too bad. Swallow it. Protecting and defending our national security is much more important, since that is Obama’s primary constitutional responsibility.
Finally, if Uncle Sam is morally above torture, then he should also be morally above retroactive witch hunts on the grounds of a policy disagreement with vanquished political opponents-show some magnanimity for Pete’s sake. Can’t we finally, please, just move on?
Chris Barton is a senior political science and finance double major. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
