Torture Redefined

War has an effect on man that is comparably anogolous at times to base animal behavior. That isn’t to say that one does not see the very best displayed in some men during extreme conditions during war times. The United States, however, does not have that history to flaunt when it came to torture techniques at Abu Ghraib.

Soldiers of low ranks in the United States are trained to obey on command, immediately, without comment. They are told, and sometimes with good reason, that their delay in carrying out orders may cost lives. So when orders are given to degrade detained Iraqi men that go against one’s moral code, one might stop and reconsider those orders. In most cases the US military men and women did not hesitate very long before carrying out the inhumane ill treatment of the prisoners. Also confusing their situation were CIA and privately contracted officials giving orders in Abu Ghraib to the lower ranking military. 

Where did these orders originate from? We can trace them to lawyers. Justice Department Office of Legal Defense lawyers, such as John Yoo and Jay Bybee, would find loopholes in the UN Convention Against Torture documents and implement memos to redefine techniques needed to specifically deal with a new threat: “The War on Terror”. By contorting the rules against torture, agreed to by many countries, Yoo was able to actualize a method of extracting information from detainees that was endorsed by Alberto Gonzales, Rumsfeld, and finally Bush. These men got what they wanted from Yoo; a thumbs up to disregard the “quaint” documents of the UN’s protection for prisoners of war. 

Yoo, Gonzales, and Rumsfeld’s approved “enhanced” torture techniques that would find heated criticism from people across the globe. Colin Powell, for one, declared that the memos inciting severe torture violated the Geneva Convention. Alberta Mora, Naval lawyer within the Defense Department, would also try to interject the reasoning that Yoo had overstepped legal and ethical moral boundaries.

 Pretending that somehow we are on a totally new playing field when it comes to the dignity of the person did not fly well with many, especially when pictures of torture came to light form Abu Ghraib.