Why I Have Not Written About Torture

I have not written about torture, because this issue of torture is the paradigm of our destruction. It truly frightens me. When I read others writing about it, I wonder at it as I wonder at bomb squads gingerly touching pipe bombs.

Perhaps you have thought that I was ranting and raving about a generation of vipers, and how we shall suffer greatly for our crimes. Well and good. I wasn't. We have chosen the form of the destructor already. Merely because a good many good souls are trying to reverse the evil course of Bush and Cheney does not change matters one bit. This generation is way too stupid to even save itself. Case in point: The National Review. I used to read it in the past, back when William F. Buckley was in charge. Not so much anymore. In fact, I don't read anything political anymore, for I have seen it is a bit too late. The future is very different than how the gentlemen on the right or left tell stories about. For me, to read a political column is merely to see which cliff the lemmings are using today. So, which cliff are they jumping off today? The National Review http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDQyMWQyMjE4NDZlMDFmNzA0N2YwMTRlOTY5OGZjMmY= the corner Friday, April 24, 2009 Re: Not Pro-Torture, Just Pro-Facts by Cliff May In fact, in just about everything I’ve written and said, I’ve taken pains to emphasize that I oppose torture. However, I do think (1) it’s important to define torture so we know what we are talking about, and (2) all forms of “stress and duress” utilized to elicit cooperation from a terrorist in possession of life-saving information are not torture. Every opponent I’ve debated on has taken this tactic — labeling me as “pro-torture,” refusing to grapple with definitions, and refusing to consider whether there may be methods of interrogation that are unpleasant but fall short of torture. This is especially important because we now know that Islamists believe their religion forbids them to cooperate with infidels — until they have reached the limit of their ability to endure the hardships the infidel is inflicting on them.* In other words: Imagine an al-Qaeda member who would like to give his interrogators information, who does not want continue fighting, who would prefer not to see more innocent people slaughtered. He would need his interrogators to press him hard so he can feel that he has met his religious obligations — only then could he cooperate. But just try to get anyone in the “anti-torture” camp to seriously debate any of this. I have added the bold emphases. The very spirit of Rationality which led to the freedom and founding of our nation has been perverted into "it’s important to define torture". When I was young, we did not debate with the devil. We knew evil when it was around. We did not invite it over to define what it meant by genocide, or killing, or torture. The fact that a substantial part of the population is willing to do this is evidence that the capacity for being sickened at the sight of evil has been blunted and is no longer functioning. That is the way to a dark future: When Reason becomes the whore of Evil, there is nothing that you can reason with to find the true way. If you have no religion, or your religion is corrupt, you have nothing left. This nation will rationalize its way into a world of horrors. We shall beg and plead for people to please be rational as we define our way into Armageddon. We shall shake our wise heads as other peoples run from our concepts of democracy and freedom in sheer terror. We used to be a beacon to the world. Now we compel their obedience to the modern day notion of democracy. We transgress their wills. We debase them as individuals. And it is all in the name of reason, the very same self-evident Reason of the truths of our Declaration of Independence. I shall not proclaim that if they must torture to save my life, then let my life be forfeit...because those men and women who are conspiring already to take my life and the lives of others are already in our midst, and they are reasoning together for the deaths of many.

They are buying guns.

Children shot and killed are acceptable collateral damage.

We have forgotten the reality of history; not the words, not the oratory, not the high-flown phrases, but we have indeed forgotten the reality, the pain and suffering. When we read the words describing the horrors of war, it takes all the arts of painter, director, writer, and poet to move our deadened souls.

We are no longer alive. We are blunt and deadened.

If God were to come and offer us the universe, we would turn in reasoned dismay from eternity and seek refuge in our prisons and dungeons. There it is we are at home.