Shock(ing) and Awe(ful)

This morning, driving into work, I was physically and emotionally sickened by NPR’s report of how Manadel al-Jamadi died at the hands of the CIA in Abu Ghraib prison nearly two years ago. John McChesney, the NPR reporter, had obtained classified CIA documents detailing eyewitness accounts of al-Jamadi’s treatment in Abu Ghraib. It seems al-Jamadi died as a direct result of torture.

News of torture out of Abu Ghraib is not new, and I’m not so naïve as to believe that torture doesn’t exist in many forms throughout the world. But I am deeply disturbed by the mounting number of incidents of torture perpetuated by the United States, and the ways in which the US government justifies the use of torture. I grew up believing that freedom, liberty, equality, and justice were values lying at the very core of America—that these values above all else defined America and set it apart from less-enlightened nations. What’s more, I grew up believing these values were rights not by virtue of citizenship, but by virtue of one’s humanity, and that this reasoning was behind the United States’ efforts to spread democracy and freedom. I also believed the United States operated in such a way so as to defend and preserve these rights among all people worldwide and to recognize the essential humanity of all people. I recognize that this perspective is grand and likely overly idealistic, but I am also deeply saddened and disturbed at the realization that the United States operates counter to its own principles, and does so on what is becoming a regular basis.

I’m not attempting to be an apologist for Manadel al-Jamadi. He may very well have a been a “bad guy.” But I cannot allow myself to believe inhumane behavior in light of someone else’s inhumanity is acceptable. To do so would destroy something in me that is at my very center. I’m above that, and better than that, and I want my country to be too.