Dr. J.'s 'He Really Said That': Bush Explains the Real Reasons for Torture (No, Not Really)

[Demeter]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/jonas/106

On Jan. 18, 2008, I reported on a "come-clean" speech that John McCain would never actually give about the true costs of his "50-100 Years in Iraq" policy. (Of course if he were truly a "Straight-Talker," he would have given that speech, but he isn't so he didn't and never would.) In this column, we report on a "come-clean" speech that President Bush would give to the American people in support of his veto of the ban-torture bill passed by the Congress, were he not such an abject liar, such an expert in hiding his true policies and his reasoning for them from the American people, and truly concerned that his "legacy" be something other than being both the most successful (in terms of his own real agenda) and the worst President the United States has ever had (see my columns Nos. 155-57 at The Political Junkies.net).


"According to many experts in the field,... torture is actually of no use for gathering intelligence from military captives. For the most part, tortured subjects just give their torturers what they want to hear. We know this very well and so we have decided to share with you why we really want to promote this policy, even knowing that it violates the United States Constitution which, under article VI, incorporates into itself both the Geneva Conventions ("quaint" as the "lawyer" Gonzales thinks they are) and the 1991 UN Treaty Against Torture. (And yes, for those doubters, I have finally gotten around to reading that oh-so-inconvenient document that I once described as nothing more than a "God-damned piece of paper"). And so, let's turn to the true uses of torture in the hands of a government like mine, and there are several.

"As the German Nazi Gestapo, the Iranian Savak under that great U.S. ally the Shah, the Soviet NKVD, the Japanese fascist era Kempeitai, the Argentine Generals, the Pinochet Regime, and the Spanish Francoists have proved over and over again, torture does have its uses. First and foremost, it is a major instrument of terror against one's own population: it is a really good repressor of dissent. Second, it is indeed very useful in extracting truthful information from politically active civilian regime opponents who have no military training or training in resisting torture, for example, the civilian opponents of the Pinochet Regime and the civilian targets of the Argentine "Dirty War." Third, it is a very good tool for extra-judicial punishment, just as long as the regime using it makes sure that its details leak out, in a totally deniable way of course, to its own citizens.

"Fourth, it is a very useful tool for repression in militarily occupied territories. Just ask the Kempeitai that operated in Korea and Occupied China about that one. Fifth, it is very helpful when a regime is out to change the culture of its country, and to wipe out historical memory of anything that went before it came to power. Doing so was perhaps the principal long-term goal of the Spanish Francoists, once they had restored corporate-clerical control of the country. Torture was one of their stocks-in-trade. Sixth, it is really good at extracting false confessions, then to be used in show trials, such as those of the Soviet Union of the late 1930s that killed off so many of the good Communists who were already challenging Stalinism as the way not to try to build socialism. Seventh, in order to have this most useful instrument of national policy, as we have decided we must have, we also must have torturers. Until we came to power, Americans didn't do such things, officially at least. So there weren't very many, if any, trained torturers amongst our armed and intelligence forces. But now they are being trained, by the carload. And my fellow Americans, in order to keep you all safe, and to keep American democracy and democracy around the world as we see it safe, we will be needing more of them.

"Finally, for us, the whole institution, its use, and the whole "we don't have to tell either the Congress or the Courts or the American people any of the details just as long as we say we are using it in the "war on terrorism" tactic just strengthens our "Unitary Executive/F**k Congress" approach to governance and governing.

"And so, there you have the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And so further, today we announce that combat operations against any of our enemies at home or abroad, and by enemies we mean anyone who doesn't fully agree with our positions and polices, have started, with torture and the threat of its use as a major weapon.

"There. I've said it and I'm proud."

Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY), a weekly Contributing Author for the Web zine The Political Junkies.net; a Special Contributing Editor for Cyrano's Journal Online; and an invited contributor to the Web log The Daily Scare.