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April 13, 2008
The Bush administration’s narrative around torture after 9/11 is a familar one. Al-Qaeda was a different kind of enemy, deadly and shadowy. It targeted civilians and didn’t follow the Geneva Conventions or any other international rules. Nevertheless the Bush administration had acted judiciously, even as it moved away from a purely law-enforcement strategy to one that marshaled all elements of national power.The events at Abu Ghraib were the actions of a few bad eggs and had nothing to do with the broader policies of the administration. The administration’s actions were inconsistent with torture. The abuses at Abu Ghraib were unauthorized and unconnected to the administration’s policies.
This account--The Green Light by Philippe Sands in Vanity Fair
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Mr. Sands' remarks just demonstrate a profound lack of awareness about the facts. Before he makes such wild assertions he should take a moment to read Greenberg and Dratel's "The Torture Papers" which, in the publication of the White House memos concerning torture, clearly shows that 'enhanced interrogation' was anything but the isolated actions of a few rogues on the night shift.
The real philosophical question to my mind is that raised by John Gray; namely, what is the validity of the eschatological ideology which lead to the genesis of the modern incarnation of the New Conservative movement in America.