Torture on a Stick | Critical Analysis |Axisoflogic.com

Torture On-A-Stick and Beyond “Like Father, Like Sons”

Although it has been served as a main dish in the name of national security, Torture On-A-Stick was not featured at the Iowa State Fair. But it should have been. More than Apple Pie, Grilled Corn On-the-cob, Crazy Tater, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Jumbo Toasted Marshmallow, Cake Pops, Monkey Tail, or the new Ultimate Bacon Brisket Bomb On-A-Stick, Torture On-A-Stick would have been a favorite among the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates. In fact, Republican Jeb Bush and his entourage would have purchased and devoured all of them within a matter of seconds.

When questioned about his brother’s (then-President George W. Bush) authorized and ordered torture program, Jeb said he wouldn’t rule out the future use of torture if he became commander-in-chief, and deemed it necessary. “I don’t want to make a definitive, blanket kind of statement,” Jeb told potential Iowa voters, adding that there may be occasions when brutal behavior-severe beatings, waterboarding, prolonged sleep deprivation, isolation in cramped cages and boxes, false executions, death threats against family members-may be necessary “to keep the country safe.”(1)

Evidently, Jeb isn’t aware of the Official Senate Report On CIA Torture. Along with uncovering a secretive and failed torture program run amok, it strongly condemned the use of torture. Its first conclusion, for instance, stated that the Bush Administration’s and CIA’s “use of enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.”(2) This was followed by how the justifications for torture rested on inaccurate claims of their effectiveness, or lying to the American people that the information divulged during torture had saved Americans.

Interrogations were also “brutal and far worse than what was represented to policy makers and others.”(3) In fact, detainees were repeatedly water boarded-some 183 times-and even beaten to death. Others were threatened with false executions and electric drills and with imminent death threats against their families. Conditions of confinement were harsher than the CIA and Bush Administration represented, too, causing utter psychological and physical breakdowns. While CIA “personnel were seldom held accountable for serious and significant violations”(4), some detainees wrongfully and indefinitely held.

Later, Jeb did said there was a difference between enhanced interrogation and torture but declined to be specific. In a euphemistic age, however, recall that torture is the practice of inflicting severe physical or psychological pain on someone to force them to do or say something. Including deliberate pain and suffering, many kinds of injuries often occur. Synonymous with ill-treatment, abuse, maltreatment, persecution, even sadism, torture has also been condemned by the United Nations and the global community, the U.S. agreeing to numerous international treaties against the use of torture and its illegalities.

Jeb, just like George W. Jr., is true to his family’s values and traits, specifically his father’s, George H.W. Bush. During the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, it was rumored that some of the captured Panamanian Defense Force soldiers were tortured in order to divulge the whereabouts of Manuel Noriega. It was also suspected that several captured soldiers were executed by overzealous soldiers and Special Unit Forces. At the same time, could the 5000 deaths of innocent civilians, or the 60,000 that were left homeless due to a scorched-earth policy, be considered an act of torture? (5)

Correctional facilities across the U.S. now use torture, such as severe beatings, pro-longed confinement, and waterboarding. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama, who promised to close Guantanamo Prison Camp, is blocking the release of Tariq Ba Odah. Odah, having never been charged with a crime and imprisoned for 13-years, is on a hunger-fast and near death. Another damning revelation is the new Law of War Manual that sanctions the killing of civilians through nuclear attacks, use of napalm, extra-judicial killings, and herbicides, reducing the U.S. and its people to the level of Nazis.(6)

Whereas America’s Torture On-A-Stick evokes the barbaric practices of the ancient Assyrians, which impaled their victims on stakes, the politics of “Like Father, Like Son” is akin to the politics of “Like Last Presidents, Like Current and Future Presidents.” Tortuous interrogation techniques were not new to Bush Jr.’s Administration. Neither have they ended. Instead, and since World War II, the use of torture and reasons for preemptive “perpetual” wars can always be traced to a sadistic and lethal national security ideology. Indeed, in the name of national security millions have been tortured and killed.

Over the next 10 days, 1 million people will descend on the Iowa State Fair to taste 70 foods on-a-stick, and to listen to more than 20 presidential contenders on the official stage known as the “soapbox.” But the soapbox is merely a sideshow, a convenient distraction, a political circus, where most of the candidates will serve Jeb‘s view of Torture On-A-Stick. Not far away, though, blood flows in the real Coliseum. Americans, therefore, must ask hard questions about not only who they want to be president, but what they want to be: “Like Last Generations, Like Current and Future Generations?”

Since torture has failed to serve its intended purpose, for example, is it a value that should continue to define the U.S.? Does torture compromise America’s standing in the world, causing more resentment and retaliation? Does the use of enhanced interrogation techniques not only destroy human rights abroad, but also at home? Do Americans really want torture to be committed in their name? And last of all, what about those in U.S. custody who are currently undergoing torture and enhanced interrogation techniques? Isn’t it time, then, to finally rise up and remove torture from America’s menu?

NOTES:
(1) "Jeb Bush Refuses to Rule Out Use of Torture if He Becomes President," by Spencer Ackerman., August 14, 2015.
(2) Senate Select Committee On Intelligence. “The Official Senate Report On CIA Torture: Committee Study Of The Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention And Interrogation Program.” New York, New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2015, p. 2.
(3) Ibid., pp. 3.
(4) Ibid., pp. 4-113.
(5) “CIA Torture Tactics Reemerge in New York Prison,” by Jenna McLaughlin. August 12, 2015.
(6) “Top American Legal Authority Says New Pentagon War Manual Reduces Us to Nazi Level,” by Sherwood Ross. August 14, 2015.

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John‘s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com.