When I was a soldier, we had many classes on the Law of Land Warfare, the Geneva Convention and the Code of Conduct. We were well trained in the way we were supposed to treat prisoners of war. When the Abu Ghraib scandal hit, I could not believe what had happened.
On the on hand, I know how tenuous is the grasp that some of us have on this gem we call civilization. As much as I want to respect the citizens who have stepped forward to perform service for our country, I am well aware of the fact that they are merely representative our society at large, and we have a lot of violence in our society. Soldiers are not policemen who are trying to keep the peace. Soldiers are trained to deliver violence in a controlled way for a tactical and/or strategic objective. (Therein lies the main problem we face in Iraq: we have SWAT teams, not police there.)
There is a great article in The New Yorker by Jane Meyer called A Deadly Interrogation. It tells the story of Mark Swanner, a CIA interrogator, and the death of Manadel al-Jamadi, an Iraqi detainee who died 45 minutes after getting to Abu Ghraib.
His head had been covered with a plastic bag, and he was shackled in a crucifixion-like pose that inhibited his ability to breathe; according to forensic pathologists who have examined the case, he asphyxiated. In a subsequent internal investigation, United States government authorities classified Jamadi’s death as a “homicide,” meaning that it resulted from unnatural causes. Swanner has not been charged with a crime and continues to work for the agency.
The article is quite long, but worth reading. It talks about the McCain bill to outlaw torture.
On October 5th, in a rebuke to President Bush, who strongly opposed McCain’s proposal, the Senate voted 90–9 in favor of it.
In the coming weeks, a conference committee of the House and the Senate will decide whether McCain’s proposal becomes law; three of the nine senators who voted against the measure are on the committee.
This is a mess and it is hard for me to believe that our government is in favor of torture.