Friday, June 23, 2006
William Pfaff on Torture
[click on above header or link at left to read entire Harper's article (November, 2005)]
William Pfaff of the Imternational Herald Tribune, long my favorite pundit, distinguishes himself in this essay about the moral and theological implications of Bush's fascist theory. Bush asserts that presidential power is limitless in matters of national security, by making that power legible in the bodies of the victims of American torture.
The aim is not so much the extraction of information. Everyone agrees such information is worth next to nothing. The aim is intimidation: "shock and awe." The terrorists (and all opponents of Bush's policies abroad and at home) must learn that we will scruple at nothing, subject ouselves to no law of man or God. The fact that many of our victims are innocent, meaning that they have nothing to do with terrorism, is irrelevant: the purpose of our torture - so well-attested and so perfunctorily denied by the White House - is propaganda.
William Pfaff of the Imternational Herald Tribune, long my favorite pundit, distinguishes himself in this essay about the moral and theological implications of Bush's fascist theory. Bush asserts that presidential power is limitless in matters of national security, by making that power legible in the bodies of the victims of American torture.
The aim is not so much the extraction of information. Everyone agrees such information is worth next to nothing. The aim is intimidation: "shock and awe." The terrorists (and all opponents of Bush's policies abroad and at home) must learn that we will scruple at nothing, subject ouselves to no law of man or God. The fact that many of our victims are innocent, meaning that they have nothing to do with terrorism, is irrelevant: the purpose of our torture - so well-attested and so perfunctorily denied by the White House - is propaganda.
