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Who is Guilty of Prison Torture?

by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer

[Certainly the United States possesses formidable economic and military power. But the rhetoric of "sole surviving superpower" is inflated and a bit desperate. Our military is overextended and poorly run. The hard power of its amazing machinery is used to squander the soft power of our global prestige - we shoot civilians and they hate us. We attack only the most defenseless opponents and have little tolerance for casualties. Our economic power is based not on our exports - ours is the largest trade deficit of any nation in history - but on our appetite for other people's imports to the USA. If our creditors were to pull their money out of their American investments, they would successfully crash our economy and drag their own down with it - our giant market for their goods would disappear as the dollar collapsed. The basis of our economy has shifted from agriculture and manufacturing to services and finance. Our trade balance is positive in only a handful of industries, so we pay for our vast consumption of imports by issuing bonds and printing dollars up from nothing. So long as dollars are the only currency that buys Saudi oil, that arrangement can last. But if the United States continues on its present course of lawless, merciless belligerence, then the rest of the world may become willing to endure a period of economic depression, and even a terrifying world war, for the chance to pull the plug on American hegemony. - JAH]

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May 24 , 2004 1100 PST (FTW) -- When I look at the pictures from Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, I am as disgusted as any other normal human being. This is a crime against humanity which must be thoroughly investigated. But we will not redress these wrongs simply by punishing the perpetrators. That response would sweep the matter under the rug without examining why these soldiers acted so inhumanely. The soldiers (and contractors) directly responsible for these heinous acts are themselves victims. It is obvious from reviewing these pictures that something has demoralized these soldiers. And every act of torture or humiliation which they inflict serves to further benumb their conscience and cut them off from their own humanity. These soldiers should have had the moral strength to refuse to take part in these actions. They should have known that there are times when you have to disobey orders. Their failure to obey higher orders is an indictment of our entire society.

These soldiers were not born monsters. They were themselves victimized and dehumanized to the point that they have become capable of monstrous actions. And their victimization took place in the context of modern society in the United States. Their actions are a measure of the failure of this system, and we are all culpable. Instead of just these few kids, our entire society should be on trial here. Our family structures, our schools, our religious institutions, our communities, and our media are all responsible for this. We long ago gave up moral considerations in pursuit of profits, replacing co-operation with competition, replacing brotherhood and sisterhood with an insular and selfish ignorance which is the hallmark of capitalist greed. And so now we find ourselves in the same position as Nazi Germany: we are invading foreign countries and committing war crimes while our citizens at home proudly wave their flags and proclaim their moral superiority. Wake up America, and admit your own shame!

This torture of war prisoners is not an isolated act; it is the latest in a long line of despicable actions attributable to US imperialism. Reports from soldiers and Iraqis, as well as from the Red Cross and other independent observers, tell us that such abuse is all too common in Iraq - as it is in Afghanistan and in the prison camp at Guantanamo. In this sense, these acts are simply more evidence of what our military has become over the last 50 years: a repressive policing instrument for capitalist power. What is happening in Iraq is nothing new; just ask natives of Guatemala, Salvador, Haiti, and almost any Latin American country. They have been the victims of torture for years, torture conducted by interrogators trained in the US. Or ask residents of Indonesia, the Philippines, or Indochina, or the people of Nigeria and other African nations. They will tell you that the US is the greatest supporter and exporter of torture in the world.

Our true position is belied by one quotation from a now declassified policy paper written in the 1940s, attributed to then defense advisor George Kennan, as the US was assessing its position in the world following World War Two:

"We have about 60% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population. In this situation we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world benefaction. We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better." (Policy Planning Study 23 for the US Government, February 24, 1948.)

The purpose of our military is not to protect the United States, nor to help foster democracy throughout the world. Our military has become a very powerful repressive tool with which to protect the right of capitalist corporations to exploit resources and labor throughout the world. The US military is a fascist police force, policing the world for a fascist superpower. Fascism is the name of this game; it is the use of governmental power to protect and further the goals of capitalism without concern for the social welfare of anyone else. George W. Bush is probably the most successful fascist in history, and the US is certainly the most powerful fascist nation in the history of the world.

Fascism has long brewed beneath the surface within this country. But in the last few decades, the collaboration between business and government has managed to subvert everything that this country is supposed to be about. And the US public has been cowed into submission by the vilification and corruption of unions within this country, and deluded by the manipulation of our educational system and our media. This is not to mention our own penal system, where such abuses against prisoners have run rampant with hardly a word about them in the media. Most citizens truly believe that we are fighting a war against terrorism, fighting for democracy and freedom throughout the world. The majority of US citizens still believe that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was linked to Al Qaeda. Our media has supported this myth instead of promoting the truth.

Leading directly to these abuses we have the intentions and perspective of George W. Bush and the hawks in the Pentagon, who view Christian Americans as superior to these heathen Muslims. This is both religious bigotry and anti-Arab racism, tolerated and even embraced by much of the American electorate. George Bush views this as a war of good against evil, in which "you are either with us, or you're with the terrorists." And our position as warriors under the standard of good justifies whatever action we may take against evil. Lacking the moral complexity of a mentally healthy adult, Bush sees everything in black and white. When forced to confront the gray area of prisoner treatment, he simply says whatever seems convenient. Why is it a gray area? Because the rightist notion of retributive justice leaves no room for reform or rehabilitation; punishment is an end in itself. If there is no limit to the extremity of the crime, then the punishment will have no limits either - and presto! The accused and the accuser are both guilty of the same thing. The difference is that without due process, the accused is merely suspected of having done something awful. The accuser, however, is on film.

The Bush administration has long sought to justify the use of torture in interrogations. We have even gone so far as to give prisoners over to interrogators in countries which do practice torture so that they might be softened up for our questioning. The Bush administration has denied prisoner of war status to Guantanamo detainees, giving them instead the unprecedented and undefined classification of enemy combatants. The administration insists that the Geneva conventions do not apply to enemy combatants, and they will not allow independent observers into the camp. Guantanamo is not a Nazi death camp, because its purpose is not mass murder at maximum efficiency. But it certainly is the US equivalent of a Nazi concentration camp, a hellhole for political prisoners beyond the reach of any law. Its existence should not be tolerated.

The US public should not fool themselves with regard to this fascist military apparatus. As the constricting global energy base makes itself felt here within the US, our fascist regime is fully prepared to put down any local uprising. The Geneva conventions do not apply to police actions within one's own country, so our police agencies are prepared to use chemical weapons and other technological innovations "against their own people." And the US military now has the power to repress any domestic uprising which the police cannot handle.

As for our leaders, be they Republicans, Democrats or corporate heads, they need to admit that they were wrong to begin with. If Kerry (or anyone else) was really interested in the truth, and honestly seeking a way out of this mess, then he would admit that this invasion was wrong and that the "War on Terrorism" is wrong, and he would accept his share of the blame.

Anything less will be a cover up. Anything less will allow this repressive system to move forward in these, the waning days of oil-based civilization. Anything less and we will all suffer, as will our children and our children's children. Those who committed these war crimes should admit their guilt, and so begin the process of reparation and of rebuilding their own humanity. And so should our military, political and business leaders admit their guilt. And so should every US citizen. It is time to end our denial, time to face what we have become, and time to regain our humanity. Now, while there is still a chance for our children, and our children's children.

Dale Allen Pfeiffer is a novelist, a science journalist and a geologist. You can find out more about him, his new book The End of the Oil Age, and his novels, through his website http://home.earthlink.net/~annallen0416/daleallenpfeiffer.html.


The End of the Oil Age, Giants in Their Steps, and other books available at:
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The End of the Oil Age, Giants in Their Steps, and other books available at:
http://www.lulu.com/allenadale

Or autographed copies available through:
http://home.earthlink.net/~annallen0416/daleallenpfeiffer.html