April 18, Jacob Heilbrun, a HuffingtonPost analyst (Psycho: Bush's Willing Medical Torturers), covered a Warrick and Finn article (Washington Post) that examine the ethics of American legal and health care agents who have participated in alleged torture of captured and imprisoned Al al Qaeda suspects. Readers of this blog can go to the original sources and form their own opinions. But, personally, I see a dilemma here for the President who appears to want both a graceful distance from the alleged acts of torture, and not make formal charges against American lawyers and doctors, but at the same time POTUS wants to get close enough to the acts to examine them and gain clarification for a consistent future policy.
While I agree with POTUS' wish not to punish in the current case, this position seems to create a dillemma: what about precedent events where America has judged and punished torturers, even its own citizens? For example, what about Nazi war criminals and the American guards involved in the Abu Ghraib mess? Are we to retroactively pardon them if we give a pass to the current torture agents? Doesn't seem we can post-humously resurrect Nazi war criminals. And wasn't this and other war crimes and torture issues were long ago clarified -torture is criminal - medical [professionals] and even military in general are expected to obey conscience and ethics when it comes to causing superfluous pain and suffering, i.e. torture. Why else were the American guards at Abu Ghraib imprisoned? But what exactly is the official, current policy? Is there a current ethical standard?
It seems unfair to prosecute only the human tools who find themselves, by threat of punishment for disobeying orders or policy, without also punishing their superiors. For this reason, I feel the punishments given to the American cell guards at Abu Ghraib are unfair. What were they supposed to do in the face of pressure and example from special (Blackwater) contractors to whom part of the Iraqi war had been outsourced? It seems if punishment was to happen, it should have started at the very top of the command chain and then proceeded downward with equal punishments for all. Likewise, if top command were not sent to jail, then no one should have been gone to jail.
In the case at hand, if the actual torturers at Gitmo and elsewhere are to receive absolution, then the Abu Ghraib imprisoned/censured personnel should immediately be freed and/or their military records cleared of wrong doing, and they receive honorable discharges with any back pay due. If this is not done, there are Abu Ghraib sentences yet to be handed out to top ranks.
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