Fighting Terrorism With Torture | Jack Beatty

The Atlantic Online | May 2005 Unbound | Fighting Terrorism With Torture | Jack Beatty: "These soldiers got the message. George W. Bush sent it. Fighting terrorism with torture, the President is destroying the moral foundations of the 'war on terror.' What do we stand for in the Muslim world, where our war aims must be legitimized if we are to escape another 9/11? Asked last week by a New York Times reporter what Guantanamo Bay meant to her, a woman in an Islamabad bookshop answered, 'Torture. The first word that comes to my mind is � torture� a place where Americans lock up and torture Muslims in the name of terrorism.' Guantanamo, The Times concluded in a second article tracing how Bush's torture war has defiled America in Muslim eyes, 'provides rhetorical fodder for politicians seeking to bring down United States-allied rulers in their own countries, and it offers a ready rallying point against American dominance, even in countries whose own police and military have been known for severe violations of human rights.' Little wonder that among our allies in the Arab world, 98 percent of Egyptians, 94 percent of Saudis, and 88 percent of Jordanians view the U.S. unfavorably. 'Even illiterate people,' a Pakistani journalist writes, 'pronounce it [Guantanamo] in a perfect manner.' Is it necessary to add that, in the words of a former CIA counterterrorism expert interviewed by CBS, torture is 'pretty useless,' because victims wind up 'telling you what you want to hear'? On September 12, 2001, we merited the world's sympathy. Now we deserve its scorn. "