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Monday, March 14, 2005
Reports of American torture and complicity in torture have become increasingly alarming, as new information reveals the widespread participation of the CIA in torturing prisoners, rendering them to other countries to be tortured, kidnapping them from other countries to be rendered to other countries, hiding them from oversight as "ghost detainees" - most of these activities either duplicated by or in conjunction with the United States military. As a pattern of systematic torture and abuse emerges within the intelligence and security community, we are forced to ask ourselves: is America doing enough torture?
Each of the several hundred cases of torture documented so far was surely a matter of urgent national security, indicating that hundreds of terrorist cells have been broken up with the cunning and skillful application of electrical cords and broomstick handles. But this cannot be enough. For every bomb plot foiled by cleverly sodomizing a prisoner with a chemical light, there surely must be a dozen more dirty bombs and anthrax attacks waiting in the wings. The forces of freedom need more boots on the ground, and they need those boots to be kicking emaciated prisoners in the groin. Since torture is an effective, morally acceptable means to prevent terror, the only problem with our current policy is that it fails to torture all terrorists. America must cast a wider net over the Arab world, building bigger and better facilities - camps, if you will - in which we can detain and torture as many terrorists as possible, limiting its targets to terrorists, suspected terrorists, associates of suspected terrorists, associates of associates of suspected terrorists, family members of associates of associates of suspected terrorists, and people with names very close to those of terrorists, suspected terrorists, associates of suspected terrorists, associates of associates of suspected terrorists, and family members of associates of associates of suspected terrorists. This would be a massive, international effort to stamp out evil, the likes of which has not been seen since the time of World War II, and while America has already begun to cooperate with other nations to achieve multilateral torture over the last few years, the project should be expanded greatly, as the full number of possible terrorists could be as high as one billion. It would be difficult, and perhaps even impossible, to maintain the secrecy of such a massive undertaking, but the Medium Lobster doesn't see this as much of an obstacle. The majority of Americans appear to be either supportive of or indifferent to torture, as evidenced by the solid majority of senators who confirmed a solidly pro-torture attorney general, and would surely welcome another weapon in the anti-Islamist arsenal. Oh, the reactionary Left would wail and moan about its "international law" and its "human rights," but the true face of America would look to a strong, secure future, right before getting bashed in with a cudgel.
posted by the Medium Lobster at 12:28 PM
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