Battle of Algiers
The threat posed by terrorists is so unprecedented, that we must resort to torture (except not call it that) in order to win, right?
Wrong.
In this new kind of war, we must be willing to question the enemy when we pick them up on the battlefield. (Applause.) We have captured people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who our intelligence community thinks was the mastermind of the September the 11th attacks. When we captured him, I said to the Central Intelligence Agency, why don’t we find out what he knows in order to be able to protect America from another attack. (Applause.)
“We do not torture,” Mr Bush told reporters during a visit to Panama.
I think you may have noted that one of the torture scenes in the video was largely reminiscent of waterboarding, one of our “harsh interrogation techniques“. Algeria earned it’s independence from France 45 years ago, and the fallout from the conflict can still be felt in both Algeria and France today. I think we can expect the same fallout from Iraq. This experience will be transformative (and in fact already has been) for the US. I just hope we come out the other side better for it; and that’s not looking likely so far.
All that is old is new again.
