If you were an adult prior to September 11, 2001, ask yourself: did you ever think we'd be having a "torture debate" in this country? Did you ever think there was anything debatable about torture? I believe most Americans, prior to September 11, would have said no, it's not debatable - we don't torture. Period.
But September 11 traumatized us collectively as a nation in ways that are only now beginning to be realized. One of the biggest impacts has been that in our fear and anger, we have all but jettisoned many of the principles which we formerly revered. Whether it's the need to find and defuse the mythical "ticking time bomb" or simply a desire to get "revenge", many Americans believe that "enhanced interrogation techniques", detainee abuse and even torture are acceptable - even desirable - options, at least under some circumstances.
Justine Sharrock has added an invaluable perspective to this "debate". Along with other recent books, Sharrock has shown that the price of torture is as high or even higher for the soldiers who do it than for the detainees on the receiving end. She has also shown that distinctions between "enhanced interrogation techniques" vs. abuse vs. torture are largely meaningless. Sleep deprivation, isolation, temperature extremes and other "psychological" techniques are just as devastating - if not more so - than physical measures, to both detainees and soldiers.
Sharrock presents her arguments through the stories of soldiers, their families, friends and communities. She focuses on four soldiers in particular, although she has interviewed many more. Brandon Neely was the epitome of the "good soldier" - ready and eager to do battle, defend his country and kick some "hajji" butt. Joe Darby - no saint himself - was nonetheless the hero who exposed the abuse at Abu Ghraib by releasing the now infamous pictures to the world. This section focuses on the difficulty and consequences of being a whistleblower for Joe, his fellow soldiers, and the community of Cumberland, Maryland.
Andrew Duffy entered the military out of patriotism, but sought medical training because he wanted to help and care for people more than he wanted to harm them. Nevertheless, he finds himself in a situation where he cannot always use his medical training to help, and even at times uses it to harm. Chris Arendt was and is the most liberal of the four. He was anti-war from the beginning, but yet he joined the National Guard in part to show his abusive stepfather that he was not a wimp and in part because he felt he had no other options. Chris realized early on at Guantanamo that the situation was BS and tried to avoid abuse and even tried to help the detainees, but even he got caught up in the situation and participated in some abuse.
Sharrock does a great job of showing the frustrations, resentment and anger that soldiers go through when confronted with a system that is designed to humiliate and abuse detainees. The abuse is standard operating procedure, not an anomaly perpetrated by "a few bad apples". It is ordered from the top down. If soldiers try to report abuse or refuse orders, they are, at best, ignored and, at worst, subject to retaliation from fellow soldiers and from the military hierarchy. They may face court-martial, psychiatric evaluation, dishonorable discharge and loss of benefits.
Yet at the same time, Sharrock lets the soldiers off too easily at times, overlooking their own culpability at some times while encouraging them to face it at other times. Brandon, for instance, is portrayed as a victim of the system who was forced to obey orders, but this overlooks Brandon's own attitudes and choices. After Brandon witnesses a medic abusing a detainee, Sharrock says, "This was the kind of thing Brandon hoped he would get to do at the prison." And while the general treatment of detainees may have been ordered, no one ordered Brandon to repeatedly bash the detainee's head against the floor each time he tried to raise it. In fact, as the first soldier to beat up a detainee, Brandon himself set a standard for detainee treatment.
Sharrock is eager to lay the blame for torture and abuse solely at the feet of the Bush administration and the military hierarchy. And certainly, both deserve much of the blame for condoning, encouraging and even codifying abusive treatment. But it's too easy and dismissive to lay all the blame on the Bush administration and the military. It makes it seem like this was just an isolated fluke in our country's history. It ignores the role that each of us as citizens play in allowing this abhorrence to stain - and continue to stain - our country.
The Bush administration could not have acted unilaterally; there had to be broad-based support or the abuse would never have gotten as far as it has. In the section on Joe Darby, however, Sharrock points out that military recruitment *increased* after the Abu Ghraib pictures were released. Many Americans, traumatized and angry at "the enemy" who attacked us on September 11 wanted a piece of that action.
Furthermore, there's little evidence too suggest that things are much better under Obama. GITMO is still open, as is a new facility at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Rendition is still being used, which can only mean that torture is still on the table. Obama continues to use indefinite detention and has actively fought against releasing detainees - even those found not to be enemy combatants. Obama has increased drone attacks in several Muslim countries and even ordered the assassination of at least one U.S. citizen accused of "terrorist" activity.
The response from the American people, especially the liberals who excoriated Bush for doing the same thing? Crickets. We are a country which, despite freedom of religion, opposes new mosques being built across the country. A church sponsors a "Burn a Koran Day". Sizable minorities of Americans believe Muslims shouldn't be allowed to be judges or serve in the military. If Arab and Muslim citizens aren't seen as fully "American", it's not a far leap that Muslims and Arabs "over there" are not seen as fully "human". Far from being collectively appalled at abuse and torture, we want to see "the enemy" get what they deserve.
Sharrock's work is important for revealing the trauma we continue to inflict on ourselves through the use of abusive methods of detainment and our insistence on conflating Arabs and Muslims with al Qaeda. This book should be required reading for everyone who wants to "support the troops"
