The End of Security Through Fear

by James Poindexter
Columnist
Published May 1st, 2009, The Principia Pilot

Who believes in capturing suspected enemies, using humiliating, and often extremely painful means to gather intelligence, and ridding the world of all wickedness? Conservatives.

This sort of torture was used in the Spanish Inquisition and, later, by the Nazis.

The Bush administration and conservatives alike have claimed repeatedly that the waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammad (183 times in a month) resulted in the foiling of an attack on the Library tower in Los Angeles. This argument is absurd. The supposed foiling of this plot occurred six months before waterboarding was even used on Mr. Mohammad!

So why has our nation as the moral and responsible leader of the world decided to use such methods during wartime? What about our legal protections like habeus corpus and due process?

Supporters of torture claim torture provides “vital military intelligence.” Today, supporters still believe this even after President Bush’s own FBI director Robert Mueller said, “… no attack had ever been foiled by information gained from torturing a criminal suspect.”

In 1949, the United States signed the Geneva Convention, banning the use of torture in war time. Even the U.S. Army field manual defines and prohibits torture as “… cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, in accordance with and as defined in US law including: forcing the detainee to be naked, performing sexual acts, or posing in a sexual manner, placing hoods or sacks over the head of a detainee; using duct tape over the eyes, applying beatings, electric shock, burns, or other forms of physical pain, waterboarding, using military working dogs, inducing hypothermia or heat injury, conducting mock executions, or depriving the detainee of necessary food, water, or medical care.” Still, the Bush administration authorized the use of these tactics throughout Bush’s presidency and barred suspects their due process rights for what he claimed were “our nation’s security interests.”

Senator John McCain, former prisoner during the Vietnam War, and most recently the Republican candidate for President of the United States said, “Our enemies didn’t adhere to the Geneva Convention. Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death. But every one of us — every single one of us — knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them.” McCain understands from personal experience that this is not a partisan issue, yet his party leadership has made it so.

With all of this evidence, it is hard to understand why President Bush would endorse such actions under his administration. It seems that the only logical explanation is the Republican fear tactic.

By instilling fear in the American people, the Republicans hoped to hold onto control of our nation. By making torture (an issue that was solved long ago) a partisan issue, the GOP has managed to divide the nation on the basis of misinformation and fabricated fear into two mislabeled camps: those who want to protect the homeland regardless of the cost, and those who are soft on terror and “want the terrorists to win.”

By allowing torture and polarizing the electorate, Bush not only emboldened our enemy’s message against the oppressive West, but he has also endorsed the violation of international laws. Bush allowed partisan politics to endanger our national security, alienate our closest allies, and empower our enemies. Lawrence B. Wilkerson, a Republican who was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, says that many innocent civilians have been held and tortured in these prisons for 7-8 years without trial. This injustice, breeding anti-American sentiment, is dangerous to our national security.

President Obama’s recent actions of closing Guantanamo Bay and releasing the so-called “Torture Memos” are an important step for our country. It is imperative that the world know that the United States no longer condones the torture of its prisoners, and that those at the top (who are currently under federal criminal investigation) be held accountable for their actions. It is up to our newly elected president to begin rebuilding America’s image internationally as a moral, law-abiding nation and reestablishing our alliances. Only then can we truly be a secure nation once more.