Different Worlds

We all live in different worlds and there are so many of us that’s it’s difficult to find a world that looks like it may be of value to you and to others who do not live in that world. It’s refreshing to discover such a new world and to read the ramblings of that world’s inhabitant. So, it is with my discovery of the world of Phillip Carter. He’s one of the authors of Slate’s report of the use of torture in the War on Terrorism. In scanning that report I was led to an article Carter wrote in The Washington Monthly, The Road to Abu Ghraib .

It’s a very comprehensive and reasonable article. It accepts the fact that there are sometimes circumstances where you can’t be Mr. Nice Guy all the time; you may have to bend the law to get information that may be vital to your survival. However, he argues that, if you reach that point, you need to have the approval of those at the top and those leaders should articulate very clearly what can and cannot be done and, most importantly, why it is necessary to violate the law. He recounts the concerted efforts made by the Administration to avoid this clarity and leave a very murky set of regulations as to torture so that no one really knew what the limits were.

Carter also argues fairly convincingly that the lack of sufficient troops to fight the war, their limited training, the speed with which we attacked all contributed to the mess of Abu Ghraib. He also joins a number of experienced interrogators who question the value of information gained by torture applied by inexperienced interrogators.

Of course, you tend to like those who have ideas similar to yours. So, Carter repeats my dictum that we have to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and others who are our enemy today or may be our enemy tomorrow. He concludes with questioning the wisdom of Bush’s frequent assertion: You’re either with us or against us. The world, Carter asserts, is not that simple. I think you have to be pretty self-centered and naïve to believe that it is.

Carter is described as a former Army officer, a lawyer and frequent writer in security matters. In my naivete, I assumed that he would be at least in his 40’s. I was surprised when I went to his web site and discovered that he graduated from college in 1997. Oh well, some of my best friends are young people.