Beacon of Liberty?
The New York Times reported July 3rd that the United States government used an old study from the 1950′s to establish their interrogation procedures for prisoners in the “war on terrorism.” Seems that the Chinese, during the Korean conflict, developed techniques to get American prisoners to confess to “war crimes”. The Chinese were able to force American POWs to confess to crimes they did not commit (like mass use of poison gas).
What possible reason could lead any American official to exploit such materials? The excuse would probably be utilitarian – it worked for the Chinese. But did it? The Chinese purpose was propaganda not intelligence gathering. The pentagon claimed that using these techniques would provide valuable information and save American lives. I fail to see the logic. How could we make the inductive leap of suggesting that techniques useful for obtaining admission of false information would be successful in gaining accurate (true) information? And how would we check the validity of information gained?
The larger concern, however, is ethical and moral. The American nation has long seen itself as an inspiration. We have democracy, freedom, protected human rights, and the rule of law. Ever wonder how that image is now viewed abroad?
As a people, we must stop this activity. Maybe a prisoner will tell us tales after being isolated, subjected to cold, starvation, ridicule, and “water boarding”. Could the information obtained be worth our becoming like our enemies, possibly worse than our enemies?
Let us again stand proud as Americans by outlawing these techniques. Let us again become the beacon of liberty, the symbol of human rights.