American Torture
The average American would probably call traitorous any suggestion that torture by the United States is anything but an aberration. That’s just one reason why the average American needs to read journalist Michael Otterman’s American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond, which addresses such feared practices.
A turning point in public opinion regarding the U.S. invasion of Iraq occurred in 2004, following the release of photos taken at Abu Ghraib prison. Images of grinning American soldiers standing on, humiliating and attacking detainees were on the front pages of newspapers around the world. In this searing book, the author delves into memoranda, eyewitness accounts and news reports to relate a mortifying perspective of a United States military and executive branch intent on ducking international law. Informed Americans have read about some of these matters before, but American Torture is a major compendium of this information.
Though this book may have benefited by exploring the psychology justifying torturers’ behavior, it is instead focused on the acts themselves. And Otterman points out such acts are not unusual. The degrading, dehumanizing treatment, he writes, has long been a wartime practice by and endorsement of the U.S. military. He pours out onto the page the activities of Battalion 316 in Honduras, supported by the Central Intelligence Agency; the routine torture-killings of Vietcong; and the record of not only the now notorious Abu Ghraib prison, but the many so-called black sites and other prisons in the Mideast and beyond.
If you’re looking for a philosophical book that debates the use of torture as a valuable weapon in America’s arsenal, this is not it. Otterman tells the tale of violence in sickening detail, and those supportive of or indifferent to coercive handling of prisoners must read American Torture. Alone, the scores of military documents acknowledging troubling facts in many cases are convincing. But when you read about the chilling techniques and scorched-earth treatment of human beings, it is almost impossible not to be disturbed, outraged and moved to tears.
PPS [PODCAST POSTSCRIPT] Michael Otterman has set up a website and blog for his book, featuring fellow journalists posting on the issue of torture.
