Failure Upon Failure

The New York Times: reports that, unsurprisingly, the torture of prisoners in Iraq achieved basically nothing.

WASHINGTON, May 26 The questioning of hundreds of Iraqi prisoners last fall in the newly established interrogation center at Abu Ghraib prison yielded very little valuable intelligence, according to civilian and military officials.

Interrogation "experts," if I can use that term, will tell you the same thing. People being tortured have pretty much one focus: figure out a way to make it stop. Usually that means telling the torturers what they want to hear. Truth becomes irrelevant.

What IS relevant, however, is the collection of photographs. Our soldiers are smiling at their handiwork. Add to this what can only be described as truly gross and disgusting statements from the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Zell Miller, and Dan Inhofe, among others, and the circle is complete. Some people in this country have crossed the line and openly endorse the techniques of fascism.

This is, I'm sure, what Al Gore had in mind yesterday when he delivered a strong denunciation of the Bush foreign policy. Here's a transcript, and you can probably find a RealPlayer file over at C-Span.

In difficult times, it's vitally important that those at the top rely upon more than the reptillian part of the brain. Unfortunately, Team Bush locked into "gut feeling" mode--much the same thing--and the end result would have to improve in order to be disastrous. Gut feelings, I'm certain, factor largely into the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Whether or not the detainees talked, the torture seems to have given the torturers--and those who support them--a degree of sadistic satisfaction. They got their pound of quivering flesh.

However, the long term ramifications of this sort of abuse will reverberate throughout the Middle East for YEARS to come. To those who live in the region, we now have all the moral authority of a hammerhead shark. How can we call for rule of law when it's evident that we don't give a hot damn about even the most basic legal safeguards, that is, the treatment of prisoners during wartime?

Here's something Gore included in his speech last night. He cited Israel's Supreme Court, so I'll take this with a mountain of salt, but, in theory at least, it's worth considering:

This is the destiny of democracy, as not all means are acceptable to it, and not all practices employed by its enemies are open before it. Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand. Preserving the Rule of Law and recognition of an individual's liberty constitutes an important component in its understanding of security. At the end of the day they (add to) its strength.

In contrast, if all we can say is that we're not as bad as Saddam Hussein, well, forget about it. Arguing the degree of difference means nothing. If that's the case, you might as well call the troops home now, because they sure as hell won't be able to convince anyone of our good intentions--whether or not they're raping female prisoners or sodomizing male prisoners with glowsticks. Because, in the end, even if we aren't technically as bad as Saddam, there are elements of the occupation that make it intolerable for the people who LIVE there.

At a certain point, the human brain must overcome its reptillian tendencies.