Shots Across The Bow

A Simple Answer

Define torture.

It's funny how often the simplest questions are so hard to answer.

Most of the folks I've talked to define torture the way Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart defined obscenity. They aren't really clear on what the definition should be, but they know it when they see it.

Except they don't; not really. There's a tremendous range of actions that some call torture, and others call acceptable.

In this case, the word torture was being thrown around when all we really knew about was abuse no worse than your average fraternity hazing. Can we really use the same word to describe beating a man to death as we use to describe keeping him awake for an extended period of time?

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I wrote the above Monday night, setting the framework for a discussion on the line on just what torture meant. However, today's events have changed everything, making that discussion irrelevant. The animals of al Qaida have given us a stark lesson in the difference between unsanctioned abuse and systemic torture.

A poor quality videotape on the site showed a man bound to a white plastic chair in a bare room, then kneeling on the floor with five masked men behind him.

The masked men then pushed him to the floor and shouted "God is greatest" above his screams as one of them sawed his head off with a large knife, then held it aloft for the camera.

The Web site said Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a top ally of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was the man who cut off the man's head. The statement in the video was signed off with Zarqawi's name and dated May 11.

For all the weak-minded, pathetic fools who claim that the abuses in Al Ghraib prison make us no better than our enemy, you've just been proven hideously wrong. Nothing we've done, proven or alleged, comes near to the sheer inhuman brutality of what happened to Nick Berg.

It's not even close.

Any rational person can clearly see the wide chasm separating our behavior, even at its worst, from their routine actions. Islamofascists routinely act in ways that seem inhuman to Western mores. They are willing to kill dozens of innocents, even their own people, if it means killing one enemy. And this isn't a new developement, following the revelations of abuse at al Ghraib prison. Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered well before we had invaded Iraq; the 4 contractors were torn to shreds and the Italian had his throat slit long before Al Ghraib became public; suicide bombings and random mortar/rocket attacks have killed hundreds of Iraqi citizens. Any claim that Berg's murder is simply a result of Al Ghraib is sheer nonsense and nothing more than a pathetic excuse for weaklings and cowards to attack the President and his policies. They would play politics with a man's murder.

Let's keep it very simple, in deference to those brain-dead apostles of appeasement.

The responsibility for this outrageous act lies solely and entirely with the men who ordered it and carried it out.

For those who aren't convinced yet, let's compare and contrast these two events.

• Nobody was beheaded by US forces in Al Ghraib prison.
  
• The videotapes in Al Ghraib were not taken for public display. They only became public after they were used to launch an investigation into the abuse, an investigation initiated by the US armed forces. The videotape of Nick Berg screaming as his head was sawn off was sent directly to the press by al-Zarqawi, as a PR gambit.
  
• The leader of the US forces did not personally carry out the abuse. In fact, she may have been unaware that it took place at all. al-Zarqawi was the man that wielded the bloody knife.
  
• The people involved in Al Ghraib are being investigated and those found guilty will be punished. al-Zarqawi and his men will be rewarded for their actions.
  
• The leader of the US has strongly condemned the actions in Al Ghraib and elsewhere, and vowed to put a stop to it. al-Zarqawi called on Muslims to commit more murders and atrocities.
  
• The leader of the US has apologized to those who have suffered abuse, and to the Arab people in general. al-Zarqawi is proud of what he did.
  
• The leader of the US has said this will happen no more. al-Zarqawi has called for more murders.
  
• The pictures and videos from al Ghraib have been shown unedited on all the major media. The Berg video is heavily edited due to its content: it's too gruesome for public display.

All of this leads me to a very simple and practical definition of torture. If you can show it on the front page of a newspaper, or on the evening news, it's not torture.

Posted by Rich at May 12, 2004 8:10 AM | TrackBack