Thanks to my good friend Kevin (who really needs to post these things here himself) I came across an article written by Matthew Alexander – writing pseudonymously for security reasons – who happens to be a veteran of the Iraq war. In the article, Alexander takes a strong position against torture, but what’s most notable is the fact that Alexander served for 14 years in the U.S. Air Force, saw combat in Bosnia and Kosovo, became an Air Force counterintelligence agent, then volunteered to go to Iraq to work as a senior interrogator. In writing about his experience, Alexander said, “What I saw in Iraq still rattles me — both because it betrays our traditions and because it just doesn’t work.”
Not only does torture not work in Alexander’s opinion, but it also served as an effective recruiting tool for al-Qaeda insurgents in Iraq:
I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It’s no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse.
But putting aside the fact that the use of torture by American forces has been used as an effective tool to recruit new insurgents bent on doing us harm, there’s the moral and ethical implications of our use of torture:
Americans, including officers like myself, must fight to protect our values not only from al-Qaeda but also from those within our own country who would erode them. Other interrogators are also speaking out, including some former members of the military, the FBI and the CIA who met last summer to condemn torture and have spoken before Congress — at considerable personal risk.
We’re told that our only options are to persist in carrying out torture or to face another terrorist attack. But there truly is a better way to carry out interrogations — and a way to get out of this false choice between torture and terror.
I encourage all three of my loyal readers to go read the full text of Matthew Alexander’s article.
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