The Mess of Prosecuting Those Who Tortured

There is much current debate over the possible prosecution of US military and government personnel who have tortured those captured in the name of 9/11. There are many layers to this discussion, and some lessons to be learned from history.

Never having been a soldier myself, nor trained in any kind of military or clandestine operation, my understanding of the chain of command is strictly a civilian one. I would imagine that when someone is trained in such a field, they are trained to carry out orders, and to question those orders would lead to consequences that would be rather harsh. Walking the plank? No, but a few months of solitary confinement in a military jail is not my idea of fun either. How do we train our fighting force? Are they allowed to question direct orders? Are they given a moral code that they are supposed to stay in compliance with? Are they allowed to object to an order on ethical rationale? Somehow, I doubt that they have such freedom.

On the next level, I am sure that those administering torture over the past 5 years were not the first line fighting force. They were probably of very high rank or highly ranked civilians, and were probably well trained in the techniques they administered, as perverted as that sounds. My point is that they should have known while they were being educated that such techniques were against every international code of law currently in existence. Seems that they could have objected before the prisoners were brought into the “chamber” for a session. But again, what would have been their “punishment” for not following through on direct commands?

There is a drama being played out in my birthplace of Cleveland, Ohio that is somewhat relevant to this discussion. John Demjanjuk is believed to have been a Nazi Death Camp guard during World War II. Mr. Demjanjuk has been pursued since I was a child, and has stood trial in Israel for his crimes, found guilty, and then had the verdict overturned. He is currently the subject of another round of litigation to have him deported and stand trial in Germany. He has lived in the United States for over 60 years, has paid taxes and been a law-abiding citizen. No one accuses him of any wrongdoing after the end of the war. If Mr. Demjanjuk did commit war crimes, was he not choosing to follow orders rather than suffer his own death? Would his death at the hands of his superiors have saved even one life in the death camps? Doubtful.

Ultimately, the people who authorized and allowed these atrocious acts to happen are the ones to be prosecuted. Yes, the ones at the highest levels of our government. There is plenty of evidence that torture does not return reliable information. Who among us would not say just about anything necessary to make the torture stop? And indeed, we have known this for many years. But we let our zeal to crush the terrorists override the standards and values of the United States of America. Much like the people of Germany allowed a madman to override their standards and to kill millions of Jews in their zeal to find someone to blame for their woes.

Like in many other parts of life, leadership is accountable for what happens on their watch. It leads one to wonder if anyone was watching when all of this was allowed to happen.

Until Next Time!
Julius