Sadism, American-Style

Just following orders from the top, that’s all. The word came down from on high to waterboard Al Qaida detainees or strip them naked and lock them in cages for days on end, and the CIA operatives obeyed, using the same amoral logic that hundreds of SS guards employed when they shot or gassed Jews in Poland; same logic used by the underlings of Joe Stalin and Idi Amin and Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein.

In this case, just following orders means absolution from culpability.

The Obama Administration should be commended for releasing internal Bush-Era Justice Department memos that bring to light the heinous “legal” methods used by the CIA to torture suspected terrorists -- and condemned for not pursuing prosecution of the people who carried out these un-American practices.

Because someone must be held accountable for torturing human beings in the name of the United States government and lowering the United States to the level of a sadist.

Under George W. Bush, we kidnapped real or suspected terrorists, jailed them, and then tortured some of them when we believed it suited our ends.

If we’re willing to do all that, we have to ask what else we’re willing to do in the name of “national security.” Where does it end, and with whom?

President Obama declares that these perversions will never happen again – and that might be so, on his watch – but what is to prevent a future administration from reviving the Bush Administration’s entire “pre-emptive” framework, including torture?

I want to know: Does the United States of America torture human beings we find threatening or don’t we? Does our conduct depend on circumstances? Do we reserve torture only for Muslims or would we also torture Mexicans or Swedes?

Although the United States is a militaristic empire with a long rap sheet, our respect (OK, maybe it was only lip service) for the rule of law, domestic and international, stood us above rogue regimes. Identifying the bad guys on the world stage used to be a relatively black & white affair. Regimes that held people in jail for years without due process, or tortured political prisoners, were bad and the United States condemned them.

Until George W. Bush came along and used the aftermath of 9/11 to stand international conventions against torture on their head.

By every indication Barack Obama is a decent, intelligent man, but he’s also a politician infatuated with having it both ways; he wants to appear as if his administration is cleaning house – but only if the cleaning excludes the basement; he also wants to protect his political capital from charges from the Right that the administration is on a witch hunt.

A politician talks about looking forward; a leader talks about making sure the evils of the past do not repeat in the future.

A leader knows when to stand on principle and not budge an inch.

Since Obama assumed office the style and tone in Washington D.C. has definitely changed, but at the end of the day real change has not yet arrived. In fact, real change isn’t even in sight.