American Torture

After the horrific attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people in both Washington and New York, and bequeathed to history a string of nightmarish images, the American government — presided over at the time by Republican President George W. Bush and directed by Vice- President Dick Cheney — began a crusade under the banner of “freedom,” one that brought with it even more horror and blood.

Less than two years later, on March 20, 2003, an American-led force invaded Iraq, starting a nine-year war, which, according to several reports, left around 130,000 people dead and 120,000 injured. As confirmed by investigations into the outrageous actions that took place in Abu Ghraib, torture became a recurrent tool used to inject presumed terrorists with terror. Ten years later, the succeeding administration — led by Democratic President Barack Obama — has just received a chilling 528-page report on the implementation of torture by executive members of the U.S. government in reaction to the events of 9/11.

The report reaches 20 devastating conclusions, among them that the interrogation techniques employed by the CIA — the Central Intelligence Agency, created in 1947 — were neither humane nor effective; that the agency lied in order to justify its barbaric methods, promoting their “effectiveness”; that the presumed terrorists’ interrogation and treatment during confinement was far more brutal than previously admitted; that the CIA manipulated the media and prevented the Department of Justice, Congress and the White House from supervising its program; and that it threatened the United States’ standing in the world.

This week has been predictably filled with reactions from all over the country. Republicans denounced the report as an act of partisan vengeance by the Democrats. Former Vice-President Dick Cheney repeatedly said to the media that the report was “full of crap,” insisting that “the CIA did a hell of a job, and they deserve our gratitude.” President Obama was at the forefront of analogous declarations, stating that torture is “contrary to who we are.” Such remarks left the impression that it is time to remember that a democracy requires not simply having a moral structure that avoids falling into a dangerous type of morality that is willing to justify cures that are worse than its illnesses, but also that it requires a base of critical citizens able to recognize the mistakes made as a nation.

As various senators have pointed out, it is true that the United States is “better than this,” but faced with such detailed reports on the reckless behavior of its agents, it is now crucial to prove that torture — that is, dehumanization and horror — has not already become entrenched within the policies of national security. Yesterday, Sen. Carl Levin issued a new statement, in which he insisted that “of course, connections between Saddam and 9/11 or al-Qaida were fiction,” designed by the Bush administration; additionally, the British newspaper The Guardian published the profile of a prisoner in Guantanamo, whose ritual humiliation continues. After so many years of war, it is now imperative for Americans’ critical spirit to resurface.

A good sign, perhaps, is that the euphemism “enhanced interrogation techniques” is not being used anymore. Instead, both the media and government are openly speaking of torture.