Winter Quarter’s Lasting Impact

              

Hammontee, Danny. Make Peace.Digital Image. The People’s Voice. The People’s Voice. 17 Oct. 2014. Web. 28 Feb 2016.

               From the very start of the course, we humanities core students were taken on an in-depth journey learning about the multiplex world of war, exploring concepts that changed our perspectives on the consequences of war. This quarter in particular has been incredibly eye-opening for me. The topics we discussed in this quarter—from the anti-slavery movement to torture to Argentina’s Dirty Wars to Cold War society—have edified me on critical historical subjects that  are undoubtedly relevant to our world and the moral crises we continue to face about the war sphere.

               This quarter has allowed me to become more educated about the anti-slavery movement through our lectures, discussions, and compelling readings. Reading slave narratives and analyzing the history of the Civil War and the journey to abolition have allowed me to gain greater insight on the incredible struggle former slaves were inflicted with. In addition, Professor Fah’s lectures and our discussions in class allowed me to learn about the vital concept of historical contingency and examine how war-time society marginalized certain groups of people.

“By educating ourselves and developing opinions, we can create the change we yearn to see implemented in our nation.”

               One of the most crucial impacts this quarter has had on me is that it not only heightened my understanding of the complexities of torture,  but it also strengthened by opposition to it. Before officially learning about the concept of torture, I believed torture was undoubtedly inhumane and should not be used unless it was the absolute only possible way of saving a nation from destruction and death. I learned that people are becoming desensitized to torture through torture-tainment which distorts the truth behind the gruesome act. As a Muslim-American, I grew up hearing about the atrocities that took place in Guantanamo Bay, but this quarter made me see these atrocities in a more gruesome light. The personal accounts of torture in the reader, the images from lecture, and descriptions of torture chambers made me realize that torture exceeded the violation of human rights in terms of physical abuse. Torture was not just physical—it was mental, emotional, and spiritual. Torturers used horrific methods of sexual torture to scar prisoners. In addition, they abused one of the prisoner’s greatest emotional strengths—their religion. Through sexual abuses, deprivation of religious rights, and terrifying threats to the safety of the prisoner’s family, torturers assaulted prisoners on every possible level that surpassed physical maltreatment. It was this gained knowledge on the horrid complexity of torture that further fortified my complete objection to this inhumane act.

Somodevilla, Chip. End Torture. Digital Image. Bring Me the News. Bring Me the News, 10 Dec. 2014. Web. 28 February 2016.

               Additionally, this quarter has introduced me to the topic of the dirty wars in Argentina. Before taking this class, I had never heard of Argentina’s past with black operations during the Dirty War and disappeared civilians (“desaparecidos”). I found this topic extremely interesting and it made me want to learn more about these secret kidnappings and killings. Through lectures that discussed the history behind these events and through The Official Story, I realized how secret political operations can have a scarring impact on not just victims, but families of victims and the social sphere as a whole.

               Prior to this quarter, I saw the Cold War as a critical clash between the warring ideologies of communism versus capitalism. But The Manchurian Candidate and our discussions in section as well as Professor Szalays’ lecture made me see the deeper and hidden truths behind the Cold War. I not only learned about the anxieties and fears of rumored Communist brainwashing operations, but I learned of the manipulation of the consumerist world. This made me reflect about war with a greater sense of critical thinking and research instead of merely seeing what is explicitly presented about the war to the public.

               This quarter has not only educated me on previously unfamiliar concepts of war, but it has also made me realize how imperative it is to cultivate a deeper understanding of war. By gaining this deeper insight on war, I can develop my own opinion on facets of war that are greatly debated such as torture.  In a world where information is at our finger tips and just a Google search away, we can develop our understanding of war affairs through credible sources and researching the history behind it. By educating ourselves and developing opinions, we can create the change we yearn to see implemented in our nation. Our opinions and our efforts can transform the injustice, inequities, and atrocities that undoubtedly exist in our governments—especially in areas that concern the complex world of warfare.

Torture-tainment’s Crippling Effects

              

Zac. 10 Most Shocking Controversies Surrounding Grand Theft Auto. Digital Image. TheRichest. The Richest, 09 Oct. 2015. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

               As I watch my fourteen year old brother playing his daily dose of typical teenage boy video games like Grand Theft Auto 5 and Black Ops, I am astonished at his nonchalant reaction to the seemingly realistic violence and torture scenes. This scenario has become common with the increasing prevalence of torture in entertainment—known as torture-tainment—in our post 9/11 world. From video games to television shows to movies, we find torture being practiced in the plot lines of our everyday entertainment. We often overlook it because mainstream media has stitched torture in the fabric of our entertainment culture, making it second nature to us. That is essentially what torture used in entertainment does—it desensitizes us to torture and makes us believe that torture actually works.

               Torture-tainment has a massive influence in society’s perception of and reaction to torture in that it desensitizes people to the atrocious act. People of all ages are presented with representations of torture with a simple click of a remote. As torture became more prevalent in our post 9/11 nation, as explicated in my previous blog post, “The Changing Face of Torture in Post 9/11 America,” the entertainment industry began to increasingly use torture in our everyday entertainment without us realizing it. We regular citizens are not exposed to the reality of actual torture that has occurred in the past and is possibly occurring to this date and the little images such as those of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo limit our ability to fully comprehend its gravity. Instead, we rely on the media’s representation of torture which glorifies and glamorizes torture by making it a hero versus villain dynamic. Torturers are labeled and presented as heroes who only inflict pain on detained individuals in order to save the day and uphold our nation’s security. Homeland is a significant example of a show that normalized and justifies torture. In this TV series, Carrie Mathison, a CIA officer, believes that Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody, who was held captive as a prisoner of war by Al-Qaeda was “turned” by the terrorists and is now threatening to the nation’s safety. Thus, with this plot line, Brody is brutally tortured with by the CIA who wants to weaken him to confess his involvement with the terrorists. CIA agents like Mathison torture Brody using methods such as blasting loud music, bright flashing lights, physical assaults while being handcuffed, and prevention of sleep—all on the premise that their torture is justified because they are doing it to uphold the nation’s security.  Thus, torture is exhibited as a normal facet component necessary for our safety. In her Washington Post opinion article titled “Television convinces Americans that torture is okay,” Catherine Rampell delineates how Brig. Gen. Patrick Finnegan, former dean of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, explicated to a reporter, “The kids see it, and say, ‘If torture is wrong, what about 24?” We find ourselves immune to graphic scenes present in shows such as 24, because the media has deeply and prevalently crafted torture into our sources of entertainment to the point where it has become normalized and justified in our minds.

QatzelOk. Torture-tainment from Hollywood’s War Lobby. Digital Image. PoliticsForum. PoliticsForum, 07 Feb. 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

               Torture used in entertainment makes us believe that torture is an effective practice that works, when in reality it does not. As explicated by Rampell in the Washington Post, The Senate report’s top conclusion was: “The use of CIA’s ‘enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.” Robin Kirk’s article “Is Pop Culture Making Us ‘Meh’ About Torture” in Dame Magazine, “On TV, torture always works. Not so in real life. In the CIA’s own words to Senate investigators, torture “failed to elicit detainee cooperation or produce accurate intelligence.” However, in our popular entertainment culture, torture almost always works. It seems that torture is an infallible solution to the torturers problems. In reality, we know that is far from being true. In Eric Deggan’s NPR article, FBI agent and interrogation expert Joe Navarro explains, “I’ve done thousands of interviews, and I can tell you, none of [the TV torture stuff] works.” Instead experts like Navarro believe that humane treatment of detainees and empathy is more effective. But torture-tainment’s portrayal of the unerring practice impedes us from realizing this.

“We may not realize it, but we are becoming desensitized to a dehumanizing practice.”

               Some may argue that torture as depicted in entertainment is harmless and is not capable of affecting how torture is thought of and actually used in real life. While torture-tainment may not directly influence torture policies and legislation, it undoubtedly affects our mentality on torture. Rampell’s article explicates, “repeated exposure to such story lines can affect not just public attitudes but also the behaviors of people who face decisions about whether to use coercion in their daily lives.” In fact, the previous dean of the U.S. Military Academy met with the creators of 24 because he believed the show’s usage of torture “had adversely affected the training and performance of real American soldiers.” Seeing torture being glorified in movies and shows as a tool for protecting the U.S. can spark nationalistic feelings in citizens and soldiers. These feelings may encourage them to support the use of torture and for soldiers to further brutalize torture treatments.  Thus, the argument that torture-tainment does not have the capacity to influence the actions and feelings of people towards torture is inaccurate.

               The entertainment industry’s portrayal and inclusion of torture in movies, television, video games, music videos, and other popular mediums influences how we perceive torture. We may not realize it, but we are becoming desensitized to a dehumanizing practice. By glamorizing torture as an effective government tool, the entertainment world is inhibiting us from standing against torture and working to eradicate it and is instead promoting the atrocity. Therefore, in order to end the cruel institution of torture practices in our government, we need to recognize the heinous reality of torture instead of falling for torture-tainment’s manipulation of the vicious operation that is torture.

The Changing Face of Torture in Post 9/11 America

“Demonstrator Maboud Ebrahimzadeh lies on the pavement after his ordeal in a simulation of waterboarding outside the Justice Department in Washington November 5, 2007. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque”

Lamarque, Kevin. Untitled. Digital Image. Reuters. Reuters, 04 Nov. 2010. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

              After the nation was struck with tragedy on September 11, the political, social, and cultural nature began to see changes. From the rise of Islamophobia, to the strengthened security systems in airports, the country adopted certain measures and mentality that was previously foreign to them. One such measure that became a critical subject following 9/11 was the issue of torture—specifically the use of torture on detainees suspected to be involved with the attacks.

            Within a few days of 9/11, Congress approved the use of “all necessary and appropriate force” against countries, groups, and people who were suspected in helping facilitate the attacks and this decision became the legal basis for much of the Bush administrations following actions in regard to detainees. Less than a month after, the U.S. and British forces initiated airstrikes against Al-Qaeda and Taliban camps in Afghanistan and it was here that interrogation methods were first developed for detainees. According to Barton Gellman, grave uses of violence and force were utilized in order “to establish dominance and fear and uncertainty in the mind of the person they’re capturing.” Questions on whether the Geneva Conventions applied to these detainees were raised and as illustrated in our reading of the “Memorandum to the President,” it was deemed better for the nation to not apply the protections.

            The war on terror was considered “a new kind of war,” that surpassed the traditional idea of war and instead posed an imminent threat to the safety of the nation. As Bradford Berenson, associate White House counsel to George Bush (2001-2003), explicated, “Everybody had to assume at that time that further attacks on the scale of 9/11, or perhaps even worse, were planned. It was these assumptions and the panic of further potential terrors that led the government to develop its tactics of employing torture in Guantanamo Bay prison camps in order to extract information from detainees. The “ticking bomb case,” as we learned in our readings from Dershowitz and Scarry, was used as a defense for using torture to extract information from people who were suspected to know about potential attacks from weapons of mass destruction that would lead to destruction and civilian deaths.

Gormlie, Frank. “Indefinite Detains at Guantanamo.” OB Rag. OB Rag, 23 July 2015. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

            While political and legal justifications were offered for torture, the morality on the usage of torture tactics was still at question. As evidence of cruel tactics such as sexual humiliation methods, brutal physical violence, deprivations of certain religious rights such as prayer and the reading the Qur’an, used in Abu Ghraib prisons and Guantanamo surfaced, many were outraged at the intense degradation of detainees who were stripped of basic human rights. It became evident that torture was not only used to extract information, but also for the amusement of soldiers and for the satisfaction of punishing the suspected detainees—many of whom were proven innocent. The extent of torture utilized and the type of tactics such as the sexual degradation and the disrespect of the Qur’an—actions that were deemed unnecessary and excessive for extracting information, leads one to question if perhaps the actions were used as a way of exhibiting occidental superiority over the inferior Orientals, which we learned about in the “Orientalism” reading. The dehumanization of detainees served as the “more civilized” U.S.’s exertion of power. These inhumane torture methods and attempted justifications for these cruel actions are immoral and will continue to be immoral in my opinion.

            While it is undeniable that the safety of citizens should always be prioritized, that does not infer that torture is the method for protecting citizens for this inhumane practice does not instill a sense of safety amongst citizens, but rather depletes the basic human rights of tortured beings. Although I was already against the usage of torture, Scarry’s phenomenonological analysis of torture further opened my eyes to the extreme impact of the aversive practice on a tortured person. The magnitude of the violations on human rights and the severity of physical and psychological torture are enough to solidify the immorality of torture, whether its post 9/11 torture implemented in the U.S. or anywhere else.