May 5, 2004:  #01  Political Satire/Commentary where satire is always commentary but commentary isn't always satire™ 
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No Satire today-- Iraqi Prisoner-abuse issues; President Bush; Arab leaders; Muslim leaders; John Kerry; Donald Rumsfeld; Congress; Lady Liberty Weeps.·

Our Lady of Liberty weeps
for those whom in danger we keep
while also insisting
on duties resisting
prohibited means for an end that is meet.

    Today, in interviews for broadcast in mid-eastern media, President Bush rightly condemned forcefully and unequivocally the abuses of prisoners committed by a tiny percentage of American military personnel and rightly vowed punishment for the guilty.  Arab and Muslim leaders ought to likewise condemn barbaric treatment and murders of Coalition troops, charitable workers, U.N. workers and pro-democracy Iraqis and Muslims (but if recent history is any guide, they won't).  

    John Kerry ought to resist his Vietnam-era impulse to sanctimoniously mischaracterize such abuses as widespread.  (Will he resist?  I hope so.)  Congress should avoid political posturing and grandstanding in favor of unequivocally supporting Bush's forthright condemnation of such abuses and his vow that the guilty will receive appropriate punishment.  (Will congress do so?  Not if the recent behavior of the 9-11 Commission is indicative of what passes today for "bipartisanship.")

    This is no time for anyone to engage in political posturing. Lives are at stake.  Although nothing Bush and America could do would satisfy the fanatical America-haters (or "persuade" our terrorist adversaries to refrain from torturing and murdering prisoners such as Danny Pearle, for example), it's imperative that America's response unequivocally demonstrate to non-fanatical Iraqis and Muslims our willingness to live by the rule of law rather than the rule of the jungle.  An overwhelming majority of non-fanatical people throughout the world possess an innately human, fundamental sense of justice ultimately amenable to persuasion through demonstrated allegiance to the rule of law.

    The abuses were mild (except, of course, the several alleged instances of homicide) in comparison to barbarisms inflicted by terrorist adversaries and by Baathists enforcing Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule, but to focus on that distinction would undermine the moral clarity of the message we must unequivocally convey.  Such focus would smack of the "I condemn terrorism, but...." argument constantly spouted by the America-haters throughout the Middle-East (and especially by PLO spokespersons).  It's a bitter pill to swallow, but its one of the medicines we prescribe for others whom we seek to persuade to embrace human rights rather than tyranny and hate.

    Some may argue that the possibility of preventing deaths of Coalition forces and innocent people warrants abuse of prisoners merely designed to intimidate, rather than injure, them in order to induce them to divulge information facilitating such prevention.  Idealists invoking specious logic would characterize invocation of such goal as justification for abuse of prisoners as "the end justifying the means."  However, such idealists rarely, if ever, accurately state the principle-- i.e., that morality forbids assertion that a "good end" would justify "any" means.  

    If the purpose of such abuse were to have been to intimidate a terrorist into revealing the location of a nuclear bomb timed to explode in a city, virtually any civilized person would consider such end sufficient to justify such means (and almost certainly more severe means).  What if the information sought is "merely" the location of a bomb that would kill one person?  Most civilized people would have a hard time condemning non-physically-injurious abuse to coerce divulgence of such information-- especially if such "one person" were a colleague, friend, relative or countryman.  However, absent two vital assumptions -- i.e., that the prisoner possesses information such that its divulgence would prevent death of another and that one could reasonably expect such abuse to induce the prisoner to divulge the information-- advocacy of such abuse degenerates into moral oblivion likely to cost far more lives in the long run by undermining a vital part of the moral fabric of civilization.

    By expecting our military personnel to impose moral restraints on methods for interrogating prisoners do we not necessarily thereby demand that they face greater danger?  Of course.  By demanding that bomber pilots expose themselves to greater risks when necessary to minimize risks to innocent lives, are we not thereby articulating a moral principle for which, like liberty, we're asking them to risk their lives?  Of course.   The only acceptable, albeit unsatisfactory, answer to these kinds of questions is that absent compelling circumstances, we must place a moral value on abstaining from abuse of prisoners that must be high enough to prevent maximization of our goal to minimize all risks of harm to our forces and others we're seeking to protect.

    Perhaps the most redcent, thoughtful analysis of this process of weighing ends against means is Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge, by Alan M. Dershowitz.  In this book, Dershowitz, a self-described liberal, ACLU member and Harvard Law Professor, devotes a chapter to such moral and legal issues.

--Jim Wrenn, Editor@PoliSat.Com.

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