The Tragedy of our Torture Policy

Some very thoughtful pundits have lately zeroed in on how our policy of torture needs to be addressed. One thoughtfully says that Bush is simply incompetent. I wholeheartedly agree.

Another points out that we've jailed some low level folks for torturing when now we know they were instructed to do what they did from the highest levels of our government. Either those officials need to be prosecuted or the torturers need to be pardoned .... and ASAP.

I've always felt that those who carried out illegal commands even for Nazi Germany needed to be treated differently. I see too many people willing to go against their own moral standards just to keep a job. Whatever logic they use to justify it is simply a part of human nature. The torturer says he's just following orders. The whistleblower knows he's going to be in a world of hurt if he actually blows the whistle. It's a nasty web we weave as a society when we have so many excuses for doing evil.

Again, I think that much of what we are seeing is human nature. It's like the teenager who can give you a thousand reasons for why he did something he was told not to do or was someplace he was told not to go.

In the heat of the battle, I could see why Bush and company would opt to go outside the bounds of internationally accepted standards for care for prisoners. They, themselves, were frightened. Both Cheney and Bush opted to avoid military service at all costs....so we know just how brave they were at heart. They were and are frightened little men and they tried to frighten the rest of us with tall tales of boogie men to get us to go along.

The problem is we went along. And, as Leonard Pitts so clearly points out today in his column, "We supported him. And when he overrode the laws and values that make us who we are, we remembered our fear and looked the other way."