Saving the American Soul

Waterboarding is torture.

Why do we have to say those words? Why is it not obvious? Restraining a prisoner and dumping water on him to simulate the sensation of drowning is torture. It is not merely repugnant, it is immoral and should be illegal. I have to cringe when I type the words “should be illegal”. No sensible person would say otherwise, yet our new Attorney General Michel Mukasey can’t bring himself to call the practice torture.

Why?

Because America tortures. I have to write it again because I can’t believe it. America tortures.

Do you remember those horrible Chuck Norris movies that show Chuck as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and the Vietnamese torture the Americans mercilessly? Yes, those movies were bad action flicks, but they do illustrate how we used to feel about torture. The torturers are the bad guys. The torturers have no respect for human life. Most importantly, the torturers are not us.

Along comes terrorism, and our self-image changes. The attacks of 9/11 gave us something to fear—a real, tangible thing. In the heat of that moment, you would have been hard pressed to find many Americans who didn’t get carried away. Instead of Chuck Norris fighting communists, we have shows like 24 blurring the ethical lines around how we deal with terrorists. Maybe torture isn’t so bad, some Americans think, if it protects us from danger. After all, it’s clear who the bad guys are, and the bad guys probably deserve to be tortured. Not only have we flirted with the idea, our government is now actually doing it. They just play a semantics game so they can still say “we do not torture”, while engaging in acts that every reasonable person would consider torture.

This is one of the dangers of acting based on fear. Fear can make you compromise your values. It can make you lose your sole. That is what is really at stake—and it is the real focus of the war on terrorism. We’re fighting an idea! How can we realistically defeat an idea by conquering territory? The war on terror is a cultural war, a war of Western liberal values versus radical religious authoritarianism. When we compromise our values, we lose the war. One of our core beliefs is: we are the good guys, and the good guys do not torture. Every time a prisoner is taken to a secret prison and subjected to waterboarding, we lose another battle in the cultural war.

There are utilitarian reasons to eschew torture. The intelligence gleaned from torture is said to be unreliable, because the victim will say anything to end the ordeal. That may be true in most cases, but I think everybody can envision a scenario in which information is needed from a prisoner immediately, and the usual methods of interrogation would take too long. Maybe those scenes only happen on television and in the movies, but they could happen in real life someday. Where would your moral obligation lie? Do you sacrifice your core values and torture a prisoner to protect the safety of thousands of others? I don’t think you can honestly say that torture doesn’t sometimes gain reliable intelligence, and some of that intelligence may have thwarted terrorist plots. We don’t know what has really happened—we have been kept in the dark about the details.

The utilitarian objection to torture is flawed and misses the point. We may legitimately be in slightly more danger if we decide not to torture information out of a detainee. To give in and use torture is to follow the path of fear. Living free and retaining the values for which American has long been admired requires courage. It is not merely a courage of convictions, it is a courage against possible physical harm. John F. Kennedy said “The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it.” He wasn’t talking about torture, but he was talking about another core American value: freedom. I think Kennedy’s words can be applied to this core value as well. The increased danger is the cost of keeping our soul, but Americans are not cowards, and we will pay that price.

Treating prisoners humanely has nothing to do with what kind of people they are. They are murderers who would love to kill Americans at any opportunity. The treatment of prisoners under our control is about what kind of people we are. Do we have the courage to apply our principles even to the most repugnant people on Earth?

If we can stay strong and be a beacon of light in the world, I don’t think the terrorists have a chance. They have nothing to offer but old dogmas, bankrupt morality, and an economy of exploitation. Obviously we have a strong military, but an Army can’t stamp out an idea—or at least it can’t do it without sacrificing far more than Americans are willing to give. Ideas are defeated by other, better ideas. Therein lies the real war on terror. If we can show the world that we can stick to our values and our virtues even when it is very difficult, others who love freedom around the world will be encouraged to do the same. Osama bin Laden couldn’t stop that force with a thousand planes or a million bombs. It reminds me of another Kennedy quote from the same speech: “Our goal is not the victory of might but the vindication of right—not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom.”

That is why people loved Kennedy. He spoke to our values and principles, and he made them sound noble. Today we have politicians who can barely speak at all, and when they do they can’t say for sure if waterboarding is torture. Nevermind the politicians. We’re not supposed to follow them; they’re supposed to follow us. Instead of waiting around for another JFK to articulate the best features of our nature, it is time for each of us to become a JFK. We should all be talking about what is good and noble in the American spirit, and we should demand that our elected officials reflect those values in their actions.

© 2007 Bryan Lower

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