Torture of Detainees Held by America

The language that we use to describe an object, an action or a relationship colors how we interpret and view the same. Severe beatings, water boarding, sleep depravity for five or days, depriving a person of clothing and blankets for weeks at a time, load music being played 24 hours a day seven days a week, etc. have been inflicted upon American military and citizens by the North Vietnamese, North Koreans, Japanese and Nazis. In the past America has decried these techniques as torture. These acts have been performed upon detainees at Guantanamo Bay and other sites of American holding sites.

While in the past America has termed these techniques as torture, in recent months, particularly in these last weeks Republican talking points have been terming these devices as “aggressive interrogation techniques.” Americans who have suffered torture in the past were comforted by the thought that America was not like these despotic nations and that America lived at a much higher moral level.

Just as these techniques were torture when performed on Americans, they are still torture when performed upon detainees. Just as it was morally repugnant in the past, so it is these last years. Further, the “ends justifying the means” rationale is an equally morally repugnant argument. Such rationale is thin at best and is used by people who know that they are morally wrong and have no creditable justification. What these people fail to realize is that the Nazis, Japanese and others used the exact same arguments. Through their rationalization and their adoption the phrase “aggressive interrogation technique” they are standing in the company of prior despots who used the same techniques.

What is sad, very sad indeed, is that many of those who are justifying these means sit in church on Sunday mornings. For me, that thought brings a chill and gives me pause to think.