Jack's Mirror

I am not one that watches much episodic television, especially on network television. I don’t watch Lost, or any of those competition “reality” shows, or mystery or suspense fictional shows, such as 24. However, there are quite a few people that are big fans of 24, especially people in the upper echelons of the government, who see this fictional show as a great way to promote and prove national policies, especially during the previous administration.

What I am speaking of is the hard on that the right has for torture. Back when I was in college, and majoring in the liberal arts (ah ha!), I learned that the entertainment industry (movies, plays, TV, etc) are primarily a reflection of society. We look into the little silver boob tube and see ourselves, though through the lens of the writer/director, to let us see things as they want to show us.

However, with the current on-goings about our policies on “enhanced interrogation” techniques, (which are, let’s face it, torture) many people who are trying to support these practices are pointing to the practices shown within this fictional entertainment television show. Supporters of torture, are saying that if it works for Jack Bauer, then it will work for us. They push the “ticking time bomb” scenario, where we have to do whatever is necessary, no matter what, to get the information from a terrorist to find and disarm a bomb within a short period of time.

Never mind that the professional interrogators with the FBI, CIA, police agencies, and the military have stated innumerable times, over many many years, that such practices never work. Indeed, it has never been proved that any torture method, used at any time in recordable history, has ever ever worked (to get accurate and truthful and reliable intelligence). Sure, the subject has ‘broken’ and has given information to his interrogators, but such information is always suspect, and most always worthless, because the person will say anything to stop the torture. Sure, the words may be exactly what the torturers want to hear, but that does not make the information given any more viable or valuable. Thus, the practices of the Bush-Cheney administration, in order to support a non-provable idea, was escalated to include torture when interrogating “terrorist suspects” to prove justifications for a unjustified war. 24 was often used (and is still used) as a reason of “proof” that torture works to get valid and accurate and timely information.

Thus, a country that stood on a moral high ground in denouncing torture, and wars of aggression, has lost it’s world standing with the war in Iraq, and the torture that we practice in a manner to try to defend that war, to show that we want to war in Iraq to punish Saddam Hussein for his role in 9/11. Of course, no valid and confirmed connection has ever been made. Even with torturing Abu Zubaydah 83 times in 2002, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times in 2003 (and that is also reported as in one month for each, not in one year), no valid information was obtained by either subject (if it was, they would of stopped at 27 or 54 or 2!). Where does it say that it is alright for us, as a nation, to give up our moral standing, our national pride, our honor, to digress to this level in barbarism and civic sadism? Too often I have seen us, as a nation, point to other nations under dictatorships and tyrants and condemn such acts by those governments. Now, we are trying to say that we care still better then they are, just because we are the United States of America??

Torture is wrong! It is illegal! It is against our laws, and against the laws of the Geneva Convention. It is condemned by most every ‘civilized’ government. We look at the Human Rights Commission to look towards other third world countries for violations, not to our own! But, just as important as all this, is that, it does not work! Time and time and time again, good and valid and accurate information is gathered by law enforcement and investigatory professionals by establishing a relationship with the suspect, and with using respect and guile and established questioning techniques to garner the information desired. It works! And, we are not seen as torturing barbarians by the rest of the world. We are able to use that information in a court of law to convict the subjects, instead of having to release the subject because the information that convicted him was gained illegally. We claim to be a nation that wants justice served, but we are not showing that we are willing to show such justice to our “enemies” (which is turning out to be an ever growing number who are becoming our enemy to protest these practices of torture).

No longer is our entertainment industry a mirror of ourselves. Now, we are framing our governmental policies, our national identity, on a television show. You are for us or against us, white or brown, Jack Bauer or the people to be tortured. By this same logic, we should be able to have talking chimps as secret agents, to send into countries to spy on terrorist training camps from the trees. Or, send in the crack investigative team of reporters of the Daily Planet, Clark Kent and Lois Lane, to look into these allegations! I am sure that many of you can come up with much better entertainment references then these, on better ways to investigate the (supposed, illusionary, and non-proved) links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

I am only really talking about one issue in this whole mess that my country finds itself in. There are lots of issues that I can speak more about, but for the time being it is this that seems to be the cause-du-jour (sic). Right now that subject is torture. The same practices that have been done to our soldiers in Korea and Viet Nam, which we have condemned (rightly) others for, we are now guilty of doing to others ourselves. We try to put reasons to such practices to validate them, or call the practices different names to lessen their meaning and impact. We try to say that we are trying to prevent crimes and save lives by torturing everyone we suspect may be able to give answers to fill in the blanks in order to bring about the right answers to questions that we are desperately trying to fix the answers to, no matter how many times it will take us (dare I give the definition of insanity here?). The government says that we are torturing for justice. I say that we are torturing for revenge. We are torturing for Jack.

(Originally posted May 1st, 2009 on Yahoo 360)