Writing about the US's descent into what she calls the Dark Side, author/reporter, Jane Mayer underscores the the significance of the miliary's training program known as SERE. Intended to teach potential captives how to resist torture and abuse, in the CIA's hands after 9-11, SERE was reverse-engineered, becoming instead of a defensive technique, a blueprint for torturers.
Retired Army Colonel Patrick Lang, a special forces officer who attended a SERE school and played both the captive and the interrogator roles, told Mayer that as interrogator, "If you did too much of that stuff you could really get to like it. You can manipulate people. And most people like power...It's very easy to go to far."
Another source tells Mayer that what's at stake is not only the detainees' health and sanity, but also the interrogators' - "torture destroys the soul."
The whole conversation brings to mind Wally Shawn. Not long ago, the actor/playwright told GRITtv that he enjoys a shameful, guilty pride in being part of the most dangerous nation in the world. The more power, the more sick pride.
Thinking about SERE (it's an acronym,) it's easy to privatize the problem: blame this administration or that official, for taking us down the torture road. But we've all gone along. We've all journeyed to the Dark Side. Maybe it's time to re-engineer SERE once more. The acronym stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape. Its seems to me we need all but the evasion, if we're going to survive as a nation -- and personally -- as people with souls.
Where’s the outrage? It’s lonely out here taking a visible stand. Although there are signals of solidarity, most people don’t want to know. Big Al hasn’t cornered the market on Inconvenient Truths. It’s a target rich environment we live in. Where do we start to unravel the damage that has become so blatant and common that it has lost it’s repugnance? The faceless millions of victims of our fear crazed responce to an avoidable attack. Listening is not our forte. It’s as rare as self reflection. High time we had our noses rubbed in it
By fatjim on July 20th, 2008 at 11:07 pm