Cheney Wrong About Torture, Obama Wrong About Consequence

by Guest Contributor Brian Robinson

At the risk of seeming like a ‘Me-Too,’ given President Obama’s decision on holding torture photos today, I want to echo what Ian wrote about torture on April 29th. What Ian wrote about the unethical and disgusting nature of torture is one of the most reasoned and passionate essays I have read online or anyplace else.  My piece will not be nearly as in-depth or footnoted with other articles, but I do feel the need to speak up on what has happened today, as well as address the current media actions of former VP Dick Cheney.

Today President Obama announced that he will not adhere to the court ordered release of additional torture photos that have been taken at various times during the first two to three years of the Iraqi/Afghanistan War. These photos, (over 2,000 of them I believe) are taken of prisoners who were interrogated by US forces. Apparently in many of the pictures its clear the prisoners were abused and/or tortured.  Obama’s defense against release is that it may endanger our forces on the ground around the world by inflaming the enemy, and that there may be a privacy issue for the victims. Umm, huh?

Firstly, I have a hard time seeing how this is materially different from the release of the ‘torture memos.’ Weeks ago, when Obama was being pilloried for releasing those memos I totally agreed and understood his defense at the time — we are an open and transparent society/government and to hide the facts in the dark only damages us ethically and materially around the world. This has been going on for years, and we need to own up to what we have done as that is the way we get past it, not by throwing more dirt and manure on it and keeping it underground. Does this affect National Security?? Hell yes it does. But, not in the way its being used as a defense for not releasing these pictures. It is the actual ACT of torture that compromises our security! Its already done, and these pictures are not the actual act. There is a very weak logic at work here. The President’s argument (along with the Bush administration’s as well as Cheney’s) has an artificial element to it in that it supposes that the release of these photos and memos gives our enemies information and ideas about what we do/have done when it comes to interrogation or torture. Guess what? THEY ALREADY KNOW! If its not just the actual victims who know its their friends, family, communities and governments they told upon return to their countries or via letters, international media or via legal communications. The only party that doesn’t really know enough about this scandalous behavior on the part of the US government is the US public. We’re the dupes here. So the pretense is that if they see these photos they will be shocked into galvanizing against our country even further. Well, simply put…too late.

And this privacy argument? One sentence: dude, get Photoshop, it has a great face blurring feature. Ask around at the tabloids, they use it daily.

Next, you have to wonder what new information has come about on the eve of the photo releases. I don’t believe there is ‘nothing in these photos more shocking’ than in the previous series of photos we have seen, as President Obama has proclaimed. I don’t know what could have changed since the Pentagon negotiated with the courts and the ACLU on when to release these photos, but its clear that SOMETHING has changed. If nothing has changed, perhaps we need to wonder how negotiations were so poorly done that the Pentagon would want these photos released right at the spring thaw in Afghanistan when things are bound to heat up militarily. Maybe they felt that if it was released during the winter, the US forces would be more like sitting ducks since we don’t fight as well in the Afghan winters? Could be. One would think that in the cold of winter that Taliban guns dont shoot any better than ours do or don’t.

So, how do the actions of former VP Cheney fit in here? He’s been a downright one-man cable news station these last few weeks — constantly defending the Bush administration, as well as his own actions, and crapping on the efforts of the Obama administration. Of course, given that ‘torture memos’ have been released and other things regarding our previous treatment of prisoners is coming to light, I think I would be panicking too. And, in my opinion, Cheney is nothing but a big lumpy bag of panic right now. And he wants us to panic right along with him. His source of panic is that with more and more examination his role in the administration’s actions becomes more and more likely a criminal act. And, Mr. “I Never Leave Government” (unless its for Halliburton level paychecks) certainly doesn’t want his apple cart disturbed. Right now the number of defenders of torture from the former administration is pretty small. (I am not including Limbaugh, Beck, O’Reilly and others as they were never in Cheney’s or any other administration.)

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

But, Cheney has been semi-successful in re-framing the torture argument. (I say semi-successful in that he’s created a platform for those who would be predisposed to agreeing with him and torture anyway — I am looking at you, Fox News.) His POV is that torture is OK because ‘it works.’ Well, you know what else works? Stabbing my neighbor’s dog when it keeps crapping on my lawn! Dead dog equals no poop problems. Guess what? It’s still illegal, morally repugnant and plain wrong. Chcney suggests we don’t cloud the torture issue with ethics and International Law, just know that since we haven’t had a major attack in the US since 2001, then it must be successful. While that’s true we’ve not had an attack here, is that the only metric we have in this war? Never mind that there have been terror attacks in ally nations like Spain, UK and Morroco to name a few. They are on their own and one certainly can’t give a damn about anyone else but the US. And, can we finally admit that G.W. Bush and Cheney are now shown to have something in common with that most infamous of American leftists, Malcolm X, when their actions can be clearly described by Malcolm’s creed of “By Any Means Necessary”?

Guess what, America, after WWII it was pretty damn clear what was and wasn’t torture thanks to those marathon trials in Nuremberg. The Geneva Conventions were upheld in a show of international unity against what was just WRONG. Politics, while certainly in the room, were put aside and the Legal system of the world was shown to work. It was the US that was a major player in those critical procedures and it was something we could stand on for decades. Now, that is definitely in jeopardy when its starting to be considered  ‘unamerican’ and ‘siding with terrorists’ (according to Cheney’s totally unbiased daughter) to stand up and ask for the examination of the facts of how this war has been prosecuted over the last six years.