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June 17, 2005

The Durbin Remarks

I will freely admit that my first thoughts on hearing about Senator Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor this week (warning: PDF file) was that the Democrats had managed to do it again. Rather than simply highlighting a problem, they'd grabbed inflammatory rhetoric to try and overstate their position with an end result of people ignoring the real issue among all the bombast. Then I actually read what the Senator said.

When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here—I almost hesitate to put them in the RECORD, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:
On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18–24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.
If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime—Pol Pot or others—that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.

While I think the Senator's point would have been stronger had he quit before describing the use of rap music, I can't deny the Senator's argument. If the FBI report is accurate, that's some pretty damnning stuff. People left to marinate in their own urine and feces is pretty mild from the standpoint of torture, but I think it certainly rises to the level of maltreatment (to borrow from a commenter at QandO) and is certainly not the kind of thing we think of American soldiers as doing. I've discussed my own concerns about torture in greater depth before. I don't have any heartburn with stress positions or female interrogators invading detainees' physical space. But leaving a prisoner in his own waste, or forcing him to endure low-grade physical torment for hours via high or low temperatures is questionable at best in my book, and I would prefer those options remain off the table. Even if they don't necessarily rise to the level of torture, they just don't strike me as things we ought to be doing.

Which means that tend to I agree with Senator Durbin. Reading that report, it's not the kind of thing you would instinctively believe Americans would do. The allusion to the Nazis and other totalitarian regimes is arguably unwise, but I'm not sure it's inaccurate. No, what we do at Guantanamo doesn't rise anywhere near the horrors of the Nazis or the Communists, but that description sounds a lot closer to what we think of when we think of totalitarian states than when we think of America. At least, what I think we'd like people to think of when they think of America.

I don't doubt for a second that Senator Durbin intends to use this as a bludgeon against the Bush administration. Politics is a nasty business at the best of times, and we're far from there. But in this case, it is quite conceivable that Durbin's politics and his beliefs coincide and that he truly is appalled to read about the acts he described being official United States policy. Because reading that FBI agent's description certainly does turn my stomach.

The argument against Durbin is that his words give aid and comfort to the enemy. There's certainly some truth in that: this is a propaganda victory for the Islamofascists. But who are we supposed to blame for that: the people who allowed people to marinate in their own wastes for hours at a time, or the man who spoke out against it? Not that I'm trying to make Senator Durbin out a hero; far from it. But if the allegations are accurate, I find it difficult to pin the blame for an Islamofascist propaganda coup on the man who revealed the sins rather than those who condoned (or ordered) them. If we want to blame someone who helping the enemy, the lion's share of the guilt ought to go on those who actually performed the acts, should it not?

I don't buy into the theory that we should be quiet when our government does something wrong for fear of helping the enemy. There are times to be quiet: when revealing information would put people at risk, for example. But being quiet simply because revealing certain information might give the enemy a propaganda coup doesn't fit the bill for me. While I don't share Senator Durbin's desire to tear the President down for the sake of political advantage, I think he's got an argument when it comes to the question of how we should be treating our prisoners.

Posted at June 17, 2005 06:23 AM

Andrew Olmsted

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Comments

If any of our esteemed leaders (and I can easily grant that Durbin is playing more for political points than moral) were uniformly horrified by what has happened, and did their jobs (oversight), we wouldn't need this kind of ranting for political points. There were several Red Cross warnings before 2004, and lots of rumors. Prisoners in Bagram and Iraq dying in custody. But no, we'll just keep drinking the kool-aid and we'll all look the other way...

It perplexes me completely that people are suprised by any of this. It isn't because I believe the worst in Americans, it's that we have alot of violent tendencies in our culture and it shouldn't be surprising what happens in this kind of environment. Even if 95% of our professional soldiers are just that - professional - the other 5% can do alot of damage if no one calls foul.

Easily 10X as many people as have been found cupable in this mess knew what was going on. You'd think Army War College or what-not would have a class on Vietnam titled: It's the perception, not the reality that counts. Or: Bullets win battles, not Wars.

That's why we'll lose this war. We didn't really care (or plan) about wining hearts and minds. Alas, It's clear the right is already lining up to scapegoat the anemic anti-war crowd for this fiasco (just like the last one).

Posted by: steve at June 18, 2005 08:06 PM

Well said

Posted by: Nancy at June 21, 2005 03:42 PM

I agree with almost all of what you have said. I don't agree that our troops are Nazis or anything close, but I do agree with the assessment that if you just read the actions and not who was involved, you could see it being done by the worst of regimes. I doubt few would hear that and immediately think that it was American prisoners treated that way.

I think that the problem was not only in Durbin using the referrence, but also in the way it was used out of context to attack Durbin and Democrats. When I heard him say it, I thought it was harsh, but I didn't disagree with what he was saying. Then it became a Durbin hates the military thing and Dems don't support the war on terror.

I want both sides to stop playing politics and start doing their jobs, which is to serve us. Not to be reelected or raise funds, but to do what is best for us. That is why i am not a member of any party.

Posted by: Scott at June 24, 2005 06:03 PM