The College Fix

A University of San Diego professor argues that modern-day coercive interrogation techniques used on terrorists are as morally wrong as pre-Civil War slavery, and he even goes so far as to link purported U.S. support of torture with leading to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq.

Thomas Reifer, an associate professor of sociology and ethnic studies at the University of San Diego, a private, Catholic institution, made the comments in a guest column published today in the UT San Diego. The column aimed to condemn the movie “Zero Dark Thirty,” nominated for five Academy Awards.

Reifer did not use the phrase “coercive interrogation techniques” in his column. He used the word “torture.” But they are essentially referring to the same thing: water boarding, physical abuse and sleep deprivation. The movie “Zero Dark Thirty” offers an exaggerated version of these techniques to illustrate an aspect of a larger effort in the decade-long hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

As for Reifer, he starts his column by quoting Abraham Lincoln’s words that “if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Ultimately, Reifer argues the same, noting: “If torture is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”

His column states:

In the Civil War, the U.S. was forced to recognize … the war’s ultimate cause: the great evil and moral catastrophe that was slavery. Similar questions confront Americans today, namely whether we will recognize the great evil and moral catastrophe of the U.S. embrace of torture, especially after 9/11.

… The costs of U.S. support of torture, for this country, the world, and for the victims and survivors of U.S. programs of torture and cooperation with torturers, have been immense. U.S. support for torture in Mubarak’s Egypt arguably played a major role in forming the Egyptian contingent in al-Qaeda, arguably helping lead to 9/11. U.S. programs of torture thereafter led to false confessions linking Iraq, al-Qaeda, and weapons of mass destruction that helped the Bush administration convince the U.S. Congress and American people to invade and occupy Iraq in 2003 at a cost of anywhere from over 100,000 to over 1 million Iraqi lives; not to mention the shedding of blood of U.S. soldiers and trillions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury.

… If the film “Zero Dark Thirty’s” mainstreaming of torture is uncontested; if it wins an Academy Award for best picture, this will represent the final triumph of a liberal culture of torture in the U.S. And if that happens, no Americans will be able to look in the mirror, without recognizing, in the words of Mark Danner, that now, more than ever before, ‘We are all torturers now.’

Click here to read the entire guest column.

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