Demagogue

Some of the folks over in The Corner were having a bit of a debate over the potential "torture" of Iraqi prisoners, with John Derbyshire saying

Why is the thought of U.S. troops misbehaving so obsessively exciting to some Americans, rousing them to such furious indignation? I don't get it.

Some reader then sent in a list of newspapers articles about what sorts of abuse had taken place and, after reading them, Derb had this to say

All right, I have checked out those reports your reader sent, and remain deeply unmoved.

"saw a detainee sitting on the floor of the interview room with an Israeli flag draped around him, loud music being played and a strobe flashing."

This is TORTURE? For heaven's sake!

I notice, too, the mention of someone having "placed lighted cigarettes in detainees' ears." Now, a post or two ago, Jonah, one of your readers said: "...Not to mention cigarettes extinguished in ear canals..."

Without having read *all* those reports, I can't help wondering whether the first cigarette-in-ear story hasn't mysteriously morphed into the second. And I'd really like to know WHICH END OF THE CIGARETTE WENT IN THE PRISONER'S EAR. If, as that first reader implied, it was the burning end (intention: infliction of pain & possibly hearing loss) that is one thing. If, on the other hand, it was the unlit end (intention: at minimum, to make the prisoner feel silly, at maximum, to make him afraid you would let the thing burn right down), that's another.

It seems absurd to pick at minutiae like this, but we're talking about drawing lines. And from what I've seen here, there is some shifty sleight of hand going on by the angry-about-torture crowd.

So while it appears that Derb did indeed read the relevant articles, in doing so he seems to have intentionally ignored the things that didn't fit with his predetermined view.

Things like this

A group of released British detainees said that several young prisoners told them they were raped and sexually violated after guards took them to isolated sections of the prison.

And this

In a June "urgent report" to the FBI director from the Sacramento field office, for example, a supervising special agent described abuses such as "strangulation, beatings, placement of lighted cigarettes into the detainees' ear openings and unauthorized interrogations."

[edit]

In a June instance, an agent from the Washington field office reported that an Abu Ghraib detainee complained he was cuffed and placed into an uncomfortable physical position that the military called "the Scorpion" hold. Then, the prisoner told the FBI, he was doused with cold water, dropped onto barbed wire, dragged by his feet and punched in the stomach.

I guess it doesn't seem so bad if you only focus on the loud music and strobe lights.

If, on the other hand, you bother to include the beatings, rapes, and strangulations, it doesn't seem quite so harmless.