As a child I heard about the evils of Communism. I heard about gulags and Stalin. I heard about Khruschev and godlessness. I heard about torture. As got older, and was able to read for myself, I read about first-hand experiences of people who were tortured for their faith.
I remember reading about people being forced to endure temperature extremes, sleep deprivation, beatings, and violence as others attempted to get information out of them. I wondered how people could treat other people so inhumanely. How could a difference of ideas be so misconstrued as to constitute justification for that kind of evil?
Then came the Vietnam War and people from my town were POWS and endured horrible tortures. “Why?” I wondered. “Why do people treat each other like that?”As I matured I learned to feel pride that my country did not engage in those kinds of behaviors.
The “Soviets” were concerned with keeping their society safe from the myths of religion and political ideas that threatened their norm. The Vietnamese were under attack from our forces and used that as a justification for their mistreatment of our soldiers. Both societies were concerned about protecting their way of life. But even as a teenager none of the reasons I heard made enough sense to me as to justify torture and beatings (as an aside, killing people in general does not make much sense to me).
Now I hear people from my government, and my society, using the same kind of rhetoric to justify “enhanced interrogation” techniques. Good, well-meaning people proudly proclaim, “If just one American life is saved it is worth it.” This is not the head in the sand “we didn’t know what was happening” situation the world encountered after WWII. No! We know what was going on. We have pictures of the degrading treatment in Abu Ghraib. And I seriously doubt that such behaviors only happened in that one prison.
We know that people were being water boarded, an activity that has always been considered torture. A Texas sheriff deputy was prosecuted by Ronald Reagan’s Department of Justice for water boarding prisoners in an attempt to get information. But now we have voices at the highest levels of government saying they are not sure if water boarding meets the legal definition of torture since a doctor was always in the room. Now, since it is to protect our way of life, things that once were considered torture by most everyone, are suddenly not so clear.
I am reminded of our erstwhile president’s statement, “It depends on what the meaning of “is” is.” Redefining “is” caused outrage, and justifiably so. Redefining “torture” seems much more palatable to some of those who were aghast at President Clinton’s “is” fiasco. In my opinion both redefinitions are nothing more than attempts to hide from the truth.
Torture is simply wrong. While I do not want our country attacked, and I do not want American lives lost; I do not believe that safety is worth losing our collective soul. It is wrong to engage in the kinds of behaviors our constitution and the Geneva Convention condemn. It is wrong to adopt methods of treating others, even those considered our enemies, that constitute torture.
Please. Not in my country and not in my name.
Peace,
Leon
