{"id":8160,"date":"2009-11-25T09:10:55","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T14:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=8160"},"modified":"2009-11-25T09:25:08","modified_gmt":"2009-11-25T14:25:08","slug":"men-goats-and-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2009\/11\/men-goats-and-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"Men, Goats, and Torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fantastical movie The Men Who Stare at Goats<\/a><\/em>, inspired by Jon Ronson\u2019s non-fiction bestseller by the same title , arrived in theaters at a most auspicious time. \u00a0\u00a0The movie deals with the topic of torture, just\u00a0 as Guantanamo detainees await their transfer to stand trial in New York courts causing commentators to speculate on how the issue of torture will be dealt with during not only the criminal proceedings but also the public debate <\/a>they inspire.<\/p>\n

As with any dark comedy, The Men Who Stare at Goats<\/em> not so subtly confronts us with the question of our morality, and how much cruel and degrading treatment <\/a>we can stomach in good conscience.<\/p>\n

The quirky tale unfolds when reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) encounters Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who claims to have participated in a U.S. Military experiment to develop the paranormal powers of a group of hand-picked soldiers.\u00a0\u00a0 As Wilton accompanies Cassady on an incredulous journey through the arid deserts of Iraq sometime in 2003, he slowly pieces together the past and learns that Cassady took part in the \u201cNew Earth Army\u201d,\u00a0 under the tutelage of Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), who gleaned his training manual from six years of hanging out in \u201cnew age\u201d circles.\u00a0 The soldiers learn to exercise extra-sensory perceptions and telepathy to disarm their enemy, staying faithful to the principle that love and peace prove mightier weapons than hate and violence.<\/p>\n

The movie offers a comical view of how straight laced soldiers \u201cfind themselves\u201d on the path to becoming \u201cwarrior monks\u201d, but soon encounter their nemesis in the form of Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) whose dark influence leads Cassady to use his powers to kill a goat with his naked stare.\u00a0 Disillusioned, Cassady quits the army. \u00a0\u00a0When Wilton encounters him years later, a beaten down Cassady still holds true to his belief in the supernatural and follows a vision to find the long lost Django.<\/p>\n

I happened to see The Men Who Stare at Goats<\/em> \u00a0a day after hearing a talk on the topic of torture by Professor Alfred McCoy during the all-day conference: \u201cAfter the Violence: Crimes, Prosecutions and Then What?\u201d, convened by the University of Wisconsin\/Madison Law School. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ever so predictably, I could not help but ponder over the classic question of \u201cis it art or reality\u201d?\u00a0 Yet the juxtaposition of the two events brought to fore that the conversation about torture no longer belongs only to academics, but has now become a part of American popular culture.\u00a0 As a society, we are in the process of grappling with the past, and The Men Who Stare at Goats <\/em>confronts us with some difficult questions.<\/p>\n

To begin, how do we make sense of the revelation that torture was regularly used during the Bush Administration\u2019s war on terror?\u00a0\u00a0 Does it mean that torture is just something humans have always done and always will do?\u00a0 Or is it a human aberration that most humans repel against?\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Does the answer to these questions dictate the correct response?:\u00a0 Turn the page and forget? Or hold the aberrant to account?<\/p>\n

McCoy\u2019s own research suggests that the use of torture was not an aberration in U.S. policy, but rather a planned feature. \u00a0\u00a0He meticulously detailed for us, as he has already done in books and articles\u00a0<\/a> , how the C.I.A. has spent billions of dollars since the Cold War perfecting methods of torture in a deliberate and systematic fashion, and it even exported these techniques to allies around the world such as through its School of Americas\u2019 training programs<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 In Larry Hooper<\/em> fashion, the C.I.A. apparently experimented with electroshock, hypnosis, psychosurgery, and drugs (including LSD) on unsuspecting soldiers and civilians.\u00a0 Yet eventually, the intelligence agency discovered that sensory disorientation (e.g. hooding, sleep manipulation, loud and bright stimulus, isolation) and “self-inflicted pain” (e.g. enforced standing for many hours) more effectively broke down prisoners.\u00a0\u00a0 McCoy describes how the use of these \u201chands-off\u201d psychological attacks on personal and cultural identity, makes a person vulnerable to mind-control techniques.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It seems \u201cno touch torture\u201d ranks up there with \u201ca little dunk in the water\u201d, the infamous reference to water boarding made by Dick Cheney <\/a>.<\/p>\n

McCoy\u2019s detailed study of many of the thousands of photos of torture leaked in May 2009 corroborate the idea that torture was systematic \u00a0and not just some sick and random game done by some deranged soldiers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yet, I noticed that people seemed almost apathetic to Obama\u2019s attempt to block the release of these photos\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>.I was reminded of the cynicism of Latin Americans who seem so accustomed to corruption and abuse that they no longer react to new scandal.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Strangely, I felt a twisted nostalgia for the time when many Americans truly believed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2004 when he \u00a0dismissed the 2004 Abu Ghraib pictures as excesses done by “by a small number of U.S. military\u201d, or as termed by New York Times columnist William Safire– a few \u201ccreeps\u201d. <\/a><\/p>\n

I will never forget how my own grandmother clung tightly to her faith in our leaders, and seemed incredulous of my own research on how the School of Americas trained the very same Latin American military leaders who used brutality in their own dirty wars.\u00a0\u00a0 As frustrating as it was not to be believed, it nevertheless broke my heart to see her so disillusioned soon after the Torture Memos were leaked in 2004.\u00a0\u00a0 She served as my barometer of the American public\u2019s coming to terms with our dysfunction, our imperfection, and in many ways our lost innocence.\u00a0 My experience in other parts of the world has revealed to me our nation\u2019s incredibly unique belief in the good of our democratic system.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In this way, my grandmother –like so many Americans\u2014reflect the idealism of Cassady.<\/p>\n

Certainly, The Men Who Stare at Goats<\/em> involves the classic struggle between good and evil by portraying how a well intentioned experiment went bad.\u00a0\u00a0 Hooper eventually becomes a private contractor for the U.S. military, using the information of the peaceful \u201cwarrior monks\u201d to develop sadistic approaches to breaking down the enemy, including sensory deprivation and stimulus on detainees in Guantanamo-like orange prison garb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the movie raises moral issues about torture, it does not address whether such interrogation tactics actually work\u2014\u2018work\u2019, that is, for eliciting valuable military intelligence to staved off future attacks.\u00a0\u00a0 Interestingly, the movie seems to assume that the revelation of cruelty inflicted by Hooper will suffice to make the audience despise him and his mission.\u00a0 Yet, here is where fiction departs from reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Revelations of systematic torture of Guantanamo detainees has not seemed to provoke universal outrage.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, once the Bush administration and its supporters could no longer deny the institutionalized use of torture during the \u2018war on terrorism\u2019, the nation did not unanimously condemn this practice as immoral, nor did they universally embrace that torture is prohibited by national and international law<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Instead, the debate turned to whether the means justified the end.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Proponents of \u201cenhanced interrogation\u201d (an euphemism that strips the act of its brutality) argue that as long as it produces useful intelligence, torture is okay and we need not lose sleep<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 The slippery slope of this assertion gives me bags under my eyes.\u00a0 What else will we tolerate that is more \u201cefficient\u201d, even if morally reprehensible and technically illegal?<\/p>\n

But alas, the question is now:\u00a0 Does torture work? Professor McCoy\u2019s own research found little specific factual evidence to prove the “ticking time bomb” rationale for torture (http:\/\/www.progressive.org\/mag_mccoy1006).\u00a0 \u00a0Interestingly, the \u201cticking bomb scenario\u201d is itself an academic concept first made popular in 1970 by philosopher Michael Walzer\u00a0 <\/a>who recognized the moral paradox of political leaders doing \u201cwrong\u201d for a right cause (and who should thus assume responsibility for their choices).\u00a0\u00a0 Yet, philosophical ruminations aside, there has been little hard evidence that torture actually has prevented ticking bombs from exploding and saving thousands of lives.\u00a0 \u00a0Instead, the sorted stories of new acts of terrorism being prevented \u00a0indicate that other types of intelligence work, such as evidence from computer hard drives or the tracing of phone conversations, provided the critical information <\/a>for averting disaster.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Torture victims themselves can tell you that torture does not work.\u00a0\u00a0 Last year (October 2008), Argentine Patricia Isasa came to speak to my class to discuss her own experience of being tortured when 16 years old and detained on suspicion of terrorism. \u00a0\u00a0She has dedicated the last thirty years to seeking justice (and has seen many of the School of Americas trained soldiers who tortured her go to prison) as well as to educating the world that torture simply does not work<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She logically explained to us that if a person truly is a part of any type of organized criminal enterprise, the information they hold about a ticking bomb will be immediately rendered useless once their cohorts learn of their capture and change their plans.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is only those who have no such affiliation that will make false confessions and fabricate information to desperately try to escape near death experiences<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Yet, acting on this false information does not always have a negligible effect.\u00a0 Consider for example the impact of Ibn al<\/em>-Shaykh al<\/em>–Libi<\/em>\u2019s claim that linked the Saddam Hussein government with al Qaeda operatives. \u00a0Bush relied on this confession in October 2002 to convince Congress to authorize military action against Iraq, and Colin Powell did the same in February 2003 to make the case for war to the United Nations. \u00a0Al-Libi later revealed that he had made this false claim under the duress of torture<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet, seven years later, hundreds of thousands of lives later (Iraqi civilians and American service men and women) and no end to the original global threat of terrorism, we should ask ourselves if torture really works.<\/p>\n

Then again, the fact that some Guantanamo detainees had to be waterboarded up to 183 times should beg the question whether torture really is the most efficient way to get information quickly enough to stop the bomb from ticking.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alternatively, Professor McCoy documents how the \u201cemphathetic interrogation\u201d used by the FBI since 1940 has resulted in far more valuable intelligence information that kept us safer (especially since this approach also avoids creating thousands if not millions of new enemies around the world who hate us only because we condone torture).\u00a0\u00a0
\nSo if the “ticking time bomb” justification for torture doesn\u2019t match up with experience, why do governments resort to it? \u00a0McCoy suggests a few reasons.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For one, he views the human need to grasp for security in the time of crisis: “In sum, the powerful often turn to torture in times of crisis, not because it works but because it salves their fears and insecurities with the psychic balm of empowerment.” \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our most deeply seated need to feel safe can create such intense fear that humans will condone almost anything if it makes them think it will bring them security.<\/p>\n

Yet, McCoy suggests an even more irrational and darker reason for torture: it has a \u201cdarkly erotic\u201d seductive appeal.\u00a0\u00a0 McCoy says that not only the foot soldiers who inflict the pain are enticed by this wicked vice, but even the leaders far from the battle who, upon vivid imaginings of these techniques, approve their use.<\/p>\n

I found this view incredibly hard to digest, and adamantly resisted the idea that a principled person could succumb to the evil of inflicting harm on another.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yet, Cassady epitomized this human frailty when he kills a goat with his stare.\u00a0\u00a0 In the movie, he explains to Wilton that when ordered to undertake this assignment, he set out determined to resist it.\u00a0 But then, all at once, he was overcome by the desire to see if he could in fact kill with his stare.\u00a0\u00a0 His encounter with his dark side ultimately defeated him.\u00a0 It killed a defenseless creature and brought sorrow to his own soul.\u00a0 And so, in the end, the movie is about Cassady\u2019s seeking redemption.\u00a0 While I cannot tell you how he does this (lest give away the whole plot) I can suggest that fiction presents yet another troubling human theme.\u00a0 If we do not condemn the dark side, even when it is too late to prevent the damage, then we may in fact still be succumbing to its seductive appeal.
\nHere, McCoy explains why we, in whose name torture is performed, should oppose it:\u00a0\u00a0 “There’s an absolute ban on torture for a very good reason. Torture taps into the deepest recesses, unexplored recesses of human consciousness, where creation and destruction coexist, where the infinite human capacity for kindness and infinite human capacity for cruelty coexist, and it has a powerful perverse appeal, and once it starts, both the perpetrators and the powerful who order them, let it spread, and it spreads out of control.”<\/p>\n

An implicit assumption of McCoy\u2019s recommendation is that we actually have a choice when we face the option to give in \u2013or not– to the \u201cseductive appeal\u201d of the dark side. \u00a0\u00a0Thus, as reflected in Cassady\u2019s struggle, the ultimate issue comes down to choosing between good and evil.\u00a0 \u00a0Movies, of course, help to simplify this classic human dilemma.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet, in light of contemporary events surrounding the issue of torture, The Men Who Stare at Goats<\/em> uses fiction and metaphor to confront us with what might be one of the most pressing questions of our time:\u00a0 As a society, are we Cassady or are we Hooper?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fantastical movie The Men Who Stare at Goats, inspired by Jon Ronson\u2019s non-fiction bestseller by the same title , arrived in theaters at a most auspicious time. \u00a0\u00a0The movie deals with the topic of torture, just\u00a0 as Guantanamo detainees await their transfer to stand trial in New York courts causing commentators to speculate on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}