On September 17, 2001, just six days after 9-11, President G. W. Bush authorized the CIA to set up secret detention facilities in other countries. Now in his memoir, he has clearly stated that he was part of the process authorizing "enhanced interrogation techniques" (read torture) against detainees in those facilities. He also named others who were involved.
On November 11, 2010 Amnesty International, a London-based group that has done a lot of excellent work over the years, called for a criminal investigation based on that admission. On the 18th, the UN echoed that call. It is a call that should be heeded.
If it should happen the ramifications would shake this nation from Washington, D.C., where President Obama is still operating those facilities, to right here in Springfield because SWMO's own John Ashcroft will be among those who will have to explain their roles.
Of course there will be a lot of backroom bargaining – to put it politely – between the call for investigation and the day when the United States government refuses to participate. It might become a rather bloody public debate or – more likely – a story quietly buried on the back page if reported on at all. Certainly the American press – not so leftist after all – will not print the whole story. The U.S. has long pretended to be supportive of the UN and the World Court, but has always denied them the right of judging us. That certainly won't change in the face of this mess. It will take pressure from the rest of the world to make it happen.
As a child of the forties and fifties I remember comic books, cartoons and movies that showed caricatures of Japanese soldiers and told stories of their barbarous ways. We were pretty carefully taught that one of the things that separated us from them (aside from the broadly drawn racial characteristics) was that they tortured prisoners while our soldiers did not.
No matter how skillfully our leaders might maneuver their way out of the limelight on this one, the fact is that the nation that filled our heads with stories of its righteousness in WWII as compared to the savagery of the Germans and Japanese has now moved to an official policy allowing torture - a sad slide from a moral ideal (whether ever true or not) into a pit of immoral slime from which there is no honorable escape other than to admit guilt and beg forgiveness.
America owes it to the world to allow an investigation and agree to accept its findings. It's the only realistic way to regain the moral high ground our lapse into barbarity has stolen from us.
My bet, though, is that we won't do it. Instead we will continue to posture as though we never lost that ground. We might fool ourselves with such posturing, but we can't be our own judge. The rest of world, watching our continued vanity, arrogance and hypocrisy on full display, will judge us harshly. We have lost their respect for good reason. We could gain it back, but I'm betting we won't.
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