Torture. Enhanced interrogation techniques. Human rights abuse. Necessary security measures. Unconstitutional brutality. Unpleasant logic. Call it what you like and think what you will, but there's no denying that the declassified, five-hundred-twenty-five page report on CIA torture during the Bush Administration is going to make heads roll.
In the event that you have an incredible amount of time to kill and are interested, here's the full text of the Senate's report on the subject:
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/12/politics/torture-report/
Since the vast majority of you have neither the time nor the patience to peruse five hundred pages of report, I'll sum it up - the CIA's use of torture, it seems, has been a lot broader and a lot more varied than we previously believed. In addition to the classic method of water boarding, which simulates the sensation of drowning (I would provide a link to a video, but I can't access YouTube from the Herricks WiFi), the CIA has been engaging in rectal feeding and hydration, to say nothing of death threats and other fun things. Already, this has sparked considerable debate in the political world. Former Vice President Dick Cheney lambasted the attacks and defended the CIA, saying that "[he] would do it again in a minute." Naturally, the majority of Republicans are backing the CIA in this case. They claim that the report is heavily partisan and a political move on the part of the Democrats to discredit the Bush administration. Other Republicans - and indeed, several Democrats - hold that this move will only weaken America on the whole. The Democrat-led committee's motive for releasing the report is unclear at best, which gives the right a bit of credibility here. To me, it doesn't add up. Maybe releasing the report for all the world to see is the right thing to do, but it certainly isn't the smart thing to do. In fact, I'd call it an extremely stupid thing to do.
At the end of the day, I have to side with the Republicans on this one. 9/11 is one of my earliest memories, and it's made me a bit hawkish when it comes to foreign policy. My parents lost some of their best friends, and half my mom's family was in the city, involved in the rescue efforts. Security policy is one of my favorite subjects, and one doesn't need a bachelor's degree to see that releasing the report is counterintuitive to our nation's standing. Our efforts to come away from the attack looking strong didn't work very well, given the lengthy conflicts we entangled ourselves in in the Middle East. So why weaken our position any further? Our reputation took a heavy blow in the last decade, and our actions are the butt of jokes across the world. What's the purpose of giving Vlad Putin more ammunition to use against the United States? Sure, we're being honest by releasing the report, but the rest of the world couldn't care less about that. ISIS will view this as proof that they're right about America, kill a few innocents, and ramp up their recruiting campaign. Perhaps the recent terror attack in Sydney's close chronological proximity to the report's release wasn't a coincidence. Iran will decry the actions, and North Korea will start spouting their usual anti-American, anti-western, anti-democratic hash. And at the end of the day, the report really overplays the role of torture - let's be honest and call it what it is - in the CIA's interrogation tactics. The five hundred twenty-five pages of the report represent only a handful of the thousands of instances of CIA interrogation over the past thirteen years. Torture tactics, cruel as they are, have proved themselves to be effective, for obvious reasons. The CIA's "Enhanced Interrogation Tactics" supplied them with information that lead to the death of Osama Bin Laden, mere months before terrorist attacks he'd planned against the US and its leaders were set to take place.
The point I'm driving at is that this isn't a black and white issue. There's gray, and a lot of it. Torture is undeniably cruel, and infringes upon human rights. And there are those instances when the individuals tortured were innocent, or had no answers to the questions they were asked. But at the same time, there are those instances when torture provided the CIA with game-changing knowledge and vital information, and they used that information to defend the United States and the American people. All of this was done in an effort to make sure we - the civilian body of the US - could, and can, lead safe and secure lives, free from worry of foreign attacks on our soil. This is one of those instances when Dick Cheney is right. Because if I were running the country and had the option to use torture on a few individuals to potentially save the lives of thousands of people, I'd do it in a minute.
No comments:
Post a Comment