IS TORTURE REALLY NECESSARY?
Torture of prisoners is in the news again. I’d like to relay a vision I had a few weeks ago pertaining to the torture of prisoners. I’m not at all sure where the small prisons I saw are located, but the prisoners being tortured by military personnel and plain clothed men and women are just like you and me– Human beings with potentials, dreams, families, educations, and a deep abiding faith in God. I saw very little difference between the prisoners and us. First, I focused on a young prisoner. He had been drugged and in his haze and foggy mind, he kept slipping back and forth to better times with his wife and children. Through his eyes, I saw a very pretty woman of about thirty. She was cooking a meal for three small children. The children were drawing pictures of their daily lives on paper. Happy pictures of happy times. The woman was cheerful and was humming a song as she cooked. I wasn’t sure what the man had done to deserve being tortured, but he had no information to tell anyone and I could see he was no harm to anyone. Then, I focused on another prisoner. He had been beaten and his arms and legs were stiff and in awful pain. He was older, perhaps in his late fifties, early sixties. He had been part of an insurgency movement, hiding and supplying other insurgent fighters with metal and fragments for roadside bombs. I felt he worked with iron or was an ironworker of some kind before the occupation. He had been beaten but feared the drugs more than the beatings, as drugs were against his faith and beliefs. I also saw his wife and a grandchild who had died in a bombing. It had angered him and he had retaliated by joining with others in his community, banding together against the military might that had invaded their country. I sensed his arthritic pain, and his feelings of futility about life. He wanted to die, but couldn’t find a way to carry out his desire for death. A woman in a dark suit questioned him. He was insulted by the tone and inflection of her voice, but he didn’t flinch when she laughed at him. I thought of my friends, and tried to imagine myself laughing at such a distinguished looking man.
So why the vision of prisoners? I suppose because I was concerned over the ethical questions I see emerging about the torture of prisoners by America. I realize we are at war and must protect and support our troops. That isn’t the issue at all in my mind’s eye. The issue is that if Americans torture prisoners, won’t we eventually be tortured at some point, in another time and place? Will torture become the “way” to retrieve information? Isn’t it up to us to show others we are not barbaric animals, but enlightened humans with both compassion and understanding for our fellowman? Yes, I’ve heard the arguments that we are simply trying to protect our country from another 9/11 and find insurgent groups training in Iraq and other nearby countries. I can tell you right now, the people who were being tortured in the prisons I envisioned were not part of any conspiracy to attack within the U.S. or any other country, other than their own. I also know other nations have, and will continue to torture Americans, but must we display the dangerous and barbaric “eye for an eye” philosophy? No matter what we want to believe, we must have a better and a more humane vision for the future. We need to find our way back to being a nation of leadership without resorting to torture. We are a democracy with a great symbol of freedom and choice. By torturing prisoners of war, we are no better than the people who have tortured us. We are a better nation and people, aren’t we?