roger's blog

Torture doesn't work in real life

I’ve been mostly enjoying the return of “24” this year.  It seems like the year off helped the writers to come up with ways to make the show fresh again.  But it’s jarring seeing Jack Bauer’s methods now, compared to 2 years ago.. the world has changed a lot, and I’m hoping that the country has become a lot less accepting of torture.  The writers clearly understand this, and coped by adding several anti-torture characters. But of course, on their show, Jack Bauer is always right, and his torture always does work.  Despite how much I excitement I get out of the show, I’m disturbed by the thought that this show is influencing people’s minds.. or worse.. reflecting them.

I wish there was more public awareness of the reality of torture, and more media demonstrating its ineffectiveness.

Here’s the beginning of the Washington Post’s article “Detainee’s Harsh Treatment Foiled No Plots”:

When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him.

The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads.

In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida’s tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida — chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates — was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.

There’s a possibility that there will be some consequences for this.  Here’s a NY Times article about a Spanish Court that is considering charging some Bush officials for violating international law.  I’m conflicted on this.  On the one hand, the US did some REALLY BAD THINGS, and hasn’t really owned up to it.  On the other hand, I feel bad about punishing the grunts who were just obeying their boss.

p.s.

On the subject of 24, I forgot to mention how annoying I find the president.  I’m ok with an intentionally dumb president like Charles Logan.. but it’s obvious they think of President Taylor as a “good guy”.. and I personally think she made a lot of dumb decisions.

nice reminder about King's full message

From Greg Boyd:

at the heart of everything King stood for was an unqualified conviction that violence can never achieve a good end that endures.

Taking his cue from Jesus and Ghandi, King insisted, over and over again, that lasting justice and peace can only come about when we resolve to love our enemies rather than retaliate against them. In fact, in some of the speeches King gave before demonstrations, he told this audience he didn’t want anyone participating who harbored hatred in their heart toward their oppressors and who were not willing to commit to non-violence, regardless of what may be done to them. In his speeches and writings (e.g. Stride Toward Freedom) he proclaimed that true freedom can only come when the oppressed care as much about freeing their oppressor as they care about freeing themselves from oppression. The only way forward, King rightly saw, was through self-sacrificial love, even toward – especially toward – our enemies.

The heart of King’s dream wasn’t about racial equality. It was about racial equality only because it was first and foremost about a society in which love prevails and that recognizes the insanity of hatred, oppression and violence. And while America has certainly made important strides toward racial equality – as evidenced by Obama’s presidency – it seems to me that we have not progressed one iota toward the ideal of non-violence. If anything, it seems we’ve gone backwards in recent years on this ideal.