Gerrymandering Torture

Under torture. . .everything you have heard told,
everything you have read returns to your mind,
as if you were being transported, not toward heaven,
but toward hell.

Under torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants,
but also what you imagine might please him, because a bond
(this, truly, diabolical) is established between you and him
--Umberto Eco
__________

In his recent "Damage That Must Be Undone," on the use of waterboarding by the CIA, Eugene Robinson gives a nod to John McCain: "[He] experienced torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam; he is passionate about this issue and knows it is a matter of right and wrong, with no gray area in between."

While it is a given that McCain was a POW in North Vietnam and was tortured, it occurred to me that the tables could be turned on this perspective. Using their own brush to tar them, according to the architects of the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©), John McCain and fellows more correctly could be called "illegal enemy combatants." Consider:

1. There was no declared state of belligerency, i.e., no state of war or declaration of war
2. The U.S. was, in effect, trying to bomb NVN back into the Stone Age
3. U.S. bombing of NVN could be seen as a disproportionate response to NVA support of the Vietcong insurgency during McCain's time of capture
4. Civilian targets were being bombed
5. Civilians were purposely killed
6. NVN was a sovereign nation, and therefore had the right to imprison the hostile pilots bombing their country.

Having said this, Ranger does not endorse or support the fact that U.S. personnel were tortured by the NVN. My purpose is to consider an alternate perspective. Why is John McCain a POW, while the inmates at Gitmo are not?

According to the GWB/Cheney/CIA formula, the torture of McCain and his fellow aviators was justified, as the NVN were anticipating future attacks and torture was the only avenue for them to get their intelligence in an expeditious manner. This info was essential from the NVN viewpoint in order for them to prepare their defensive posture. If it is right for the U.S., then it is right for the Vietnamese. And if it is right, god help us.

Robinson ends on a preternaturally happy "never again" note. However, Faust McCain will not countermand George W. Bush's policies, Obama lacks the depth to do so and Clinton will not fight the civilian and military security and intelligence communities.

The shame of torture will not be removed via back room legalistic manuevers. Only a painful and direct address of the issue will set the matter straight. No legal gerrymandering of agencies entitled to torture.

The Hotel Hilton in Hanoi or Gitmo -- what is the difference?