Some shame, some glory

My And column on 9-11 is up here. While it’s hard to pick one legacy out of the impact of 9-11, I think our government’s embrace of torture, in defiance of law, ethics and any shred of human compassion is the one that we’ll be most ashamed of decades from now. Unless, of course, the anti-torture position——which according to so many in government and the media is now a radical left-wing idea——is completely gone and we look back with pride.
However, I vented enough in the article. Here, I’d like to celebrate the heroes, the ones who took a stand against our march to the dark side.
The JAGs and military officers who looked at the rules for military tribunals, realized they’d be participating in kangaroo courts and refused to jump.
The soldiers who spoke out against torture, from those who first gave the Abu Ghraib photos to the media to Gen. Taguba, who actually investigated Abu Ghraib instead of covering it up.
To Capt. Ian Fishback, who went to Human Rights Watch with stories of torture after no-one in the chain of command or his elected officials back home could give him clear guidelines on what were acceptable interrogation tactics. He stated later that he’d sworn when he became an officer that he would never give orders that would force his troops to act against their honor, and that he believed he’d failed to live up to that.
It’s unlikely any of them will get medals, parades or any other rewards for their principled actions. Throwing grit in the wheels of official injustice doesn’t make friends or boost careers. But they did it anyway. And it’s a lot harder for someone who’s in the system to criticize it than it is for me typing at home.
To all of you, from me, thanks. You give me hope the fight isn’t lost.