The Normalization of Horror

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Reported

 

The Normalization of Horror

 

January 12, 2005

By: Ted Rall

 

Universal Press Syndicate

 

A new documentary, " Hitler's Hit Parade, " runs 76 minutes without

narration. Comprised entirely of archival footage, the film prompts

its reviewers to remark upon Hannah Arendt's famous observation about

the banality of evil. German troops subjugated Europe and shoved

millions of people into ovens; German civilians went to the movies,

attended concerts, and gossiped about their neighbors. People lived

mundane, normal lives while their government carried out unspeakable

monstrosities. Sound familiar?

 

As Congress prepared to rubberstamp the nomination of torture

aficionado Alberto Gonzales as the nation's chief prosecutor, the

Washington Post broke news that would have torn a saner nation apart.

The Bush Administration, the paper reported January 2, is no longer

planning to keep hundreds of Muslim prisoners currently rotting away

in U.S. concentration camps at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and Bagram

merely " indefinitely. " The Defense Department and CIA are now planning

" a more permanent approach for potentially lifetime detentions " for

these innocents.

 

We're locking them up forever. Without due process.

 

Before gangsters like Alberto Gonzales seduced us into abandoning our

values, a person was considered innocent before being proven guilty.

Now we're locking people away because " the government does not have

enough evidence to charge [them] in courts. " And everyone, including

Democrats, is OK with this.

 

Untold thousands of people are being held without charges, tortured

and occasionally murdered in the system of gulags hastily strung

together by the CIA, FBI, INS and Pentagon. According to the

government itself, only a few dozen are former Al Qaeda officials.

Most of these postmodern misérables were farmers, truck drivers, grunt

militiamen and political enemies sold into bondage by Afghan warlords

and similarly trustworthy souls for cash bounties on a no questions

asked basis. We know they have no ties to terrorism, but they've

already spent years getting beaten up. Releasing them would serve as a

tacit admission that we were wrong to describe them as--in Dick

Cheney's words-- " the worst of the worst. " They would sue our

government, and eventually win. Worst of all, they have unpleasant

tales to tell about systemic sodomy and countless other forms of

horrific taxpayer-funded abuse. We can never let them out.

 

Bush plans to divide U.S. concentration camp victims into two groups.

One set of " lifers " will end up in U.S.-run stalags like Gitmo's new

Camp 6, built to hold 200 " detainees who are unlikely to ever go

through a military tribunal for lack of evidence, according to defense

officials. " But not to worry: Camp 6 would " allow socializing among

inmates. "

 

Others captured in the " war on terrorism " will be outsourced " to third

countries willing to hold them indefinitely and without proceedings "

in foreign-run gulags that pledge to make victims available for

torture by American interrogators. This practice, some claim, is " an

effective method of disrupting terrorist cells and persuading

detainees to reveal information. "

 

" The threat of sending someone to one of these countries [where they

are likely to be tortured] is very important, " said Rohan Gunaratna,

author of " Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror. "

 

But the so-called " ticking time bomb " rationale for torture is

patently fallacious. We've heard the scenario repeatedly: wouldn't it

be worth torturing someone who knew the location of a nuclear bomb

that was about to destroy Manhattan? The short answer, to a moral

person, is obviously no. Moreover, its logic is ludicrous.

 

Suppose we had captured Osama bin Laden on 9/10 and immediately gone

to work on him with our Alberto Gonzales-approved psychotropic drugs

and our Alberto Gonzales-approved " waterboard " dunking technique. It

wouldn't take long for Osama's pals to notice that he'd failed to show

up at the Terrorcave. They'd assume that we had him and were torturing

him. They'd assume that he'd tell us everything he knew. So they'd

delay 9/11 to 10/11 or 11/12 or 9/11/02. Or go to Plan B. Or develop a

Plan C. No one in an underground organization, not even its top

leader, is indispensable. Arrests are inconvenient, not debilitating.

 

The information a person possesses at the moment of his capture ages

like a ripe cheese in hot sun. Even if what he told you at the

beginning was true, anything you'd get out of him days and weeks and

months and years later would be completely worthless.

 

Wait a minute.

 

Look at what we're talking about. Consider the breezy way we

Americans--Americans!--are debating the pros and cons of torture.

Marvel at our moral bankruptcy. The liberal argument against torture

used to be that it was wrong. Now it's that it doesn't work.

 

So.

 

Read any good books lately?