In Washington, drones in dark suits continue to insist that remote-control murder and “enhanced interrogation†abroad are essential because they keep Americans safer at home. This is not evident on the receiving end.
However one looks at the morality issues, the effect of drone strikes and torture is dead clear to anyone who has witnessed the aftermath: Both create endless enemies, and any tactical gain pales against greater strategic loss.
Writing from Arizona, where these issues are a distant abstraction, I keep thinking of “A Clockwork Orange.†A murderous young thug is strapped to a chair, eyes propped open, and forced to watch a replay of the violence he wrought. Perhaps Americans could use a little of Stanley Kubrick’s “aversion therapy.â€
Much has been made of the torture depicted in “Zero Dark Thirty.†Compared to real “enhanced interrogation,†what happens in the film smacks of campus fraternity hazing. It rarely produces useful intelligence. But it almost ivariably leaves lifelong bitter hatred.
Torture, at least, is not usually fatal. Done out of sight, its true extent remains a dirty little secret. Drone strikes are exponentially different. Their very principle redefines America for a world that once expected something better.
As Barack Obama ramped up George W. Bush’s use of unmanned mayhem, I asked for opinions from thoughtful people I met on various travels across five continents. Mostly, they differ only in their degree of outrage.
Some are particularly incensed at the distinction made over targeting American citizens. Does that mean everyone else is fair game, on the suspicion of a suspicion according to long-distance evidence and shadowy criteria
War has always been hell, and some civilian “collateral damage†is factored in as unavoidable. That, to a world beyond America, is different from workaday technicians plotting premeditated murder continents away.
When America executes mass murderers, due process can ! take years and cost in the millions. For suspected terrorists, long-range death comes by robotic killing machines that also eliminate innocents who happen to be in the way.
Reporters and Congressional investigators pry ugly details out of the White House, which invokes national interest. This equates to France’s raison d’etat, which has shielded official depredation since Cardinal Richelieu. But only roughly.
The French are less hypocritical about their hypocrisy. When they have to bend a principle, they just do it. Americans also cut corners for expediency but see themselves in their historic role, as inhabitants of that Shining City on a Hill.
True enough, drone strikes score significant hits and reduce the danger to U.S. troops who might otherwise have to wage war in person. But few people back home have even an inkling of the enormous price they are paying.
