We hold our soldiers to high standards and we should expect high morals, but we also should well understand that torture is not some third world event. In Illinois there was routine torture by John Burge and his fellow officers over several years. It turns out several of the tortured were innocent of those charges. Carol Marin brings it up at a time that should remind us that just as we are horrified at the treatment of Iraqis, we should be horrified by the treatment of Americans under specific members of the Chicago PD.
Torture is not only inhumane, but it is ineffective. If we have 20 minutes until an A-bomb goes off, we might forgive as Steve Chapman once suggested, but in every day life the only way torture can be justified is by assuming the torturer is infallible and that is never the case.
If you remember that some of the very people depicted as torturing these prisoners are — in their civilian lives — corrections officers, I think it is safe to assume that this kind of sickening conduct occurs in the U.S. of A.
One more thing:
In her column, Carol Marin said, “I can’t figure out what the city, particularly the mayor, is thinking. Why is the city fighting these cases?”
Did anyone else find this question odd? The answer to this question is: Because Mayor Daley was the States Attorney of Cook County when much of this abuse and torture allegedly took place.
Not only does Ms. Marin know the answer to her question, she knows that her readers know the answer — and that they know she knows it. (Trust me, that sentence makes sense — just read it slowly)
So why didn’t she give us the answer to that question, i.e. that any investigation of torture and abuse in Area 2 would lead back to the States Attorney’s office of Cook County and Mayor Daley?
*That* I don’t know.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/oped/chi-0405050219may05,1,6585728.story