Torture for torture's sake

Torture for torture's sake

by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News August 13, 2008
The use of torture is a defining characteristic of those in the grip of depravity. The use of torture for purportedly military or political ends is indicative of depravity brought on by ideology. In spite of the efforts of the mainstream media through such vehicles as the TV show 24 (which would be a torture to watch), deep down folks know this truth. Those who torture are in the grip of a devastating mental illness.

The main use of torture in any setting is to force the appearance of the victim's acceptance of the torturer's beliefsystem. When the victims of the Inquisition cried out admission of their guilt of fraternizing with the devil, the torturers felt validated -- they rationalized their cruelty by telling themselves that their

victims' souls had been saved. It is no different in incidents of torture for political ends. The captured "insurgent" is forced to confess to imagined crimes under the influence of pain and humiliation. The "interrogator" ends up with a lot of useless, inaccurate information which, when acted upon, actually harms the mission. The French utilized torture, especially waterboarding (watch THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS), in the counter-insurgency war in Algeria. Although this program of interrogation under torture was trumpeted at the time as a great success, and has continued to be copied by counter-insurgency campaigns around the world, time has revealed it to have been a very counterproductive effort. What is revealed in these sorts of transactions is that winning a war is not the primary objective of the torture. If that were the case, something as problematic as interrogation under torture would be abandoned as useless or worse. What turns out to be important is that a "soul" has been saved for the wholly just and justifiable religion of imperialism, of economic and cultural domination. The victim is brought to the ostensible point of agreeing with his torturers that he has been in error to think that rejecting such economic and cultural domination is justifiable. Thus those in the iron-clad denial that only the capacity for massive violence can provide, can, for a brief moment, revel in the justice of their cause.

The main use of torture in any setting is to force the appearance of the victim's acceptance of the torturer's belief system. When the victims of the Inquisition cried out admission of their guilt of fraternizing with the devil, the torturers felt validated -- they rationalized their cruelty by telling themselves that their victims' souls had been saved.

But the effect wears off quickly, so yet another atrocity must be committed, and another, and another, all robustly rationalized by the ostensible value of the information obtained. The final result is defeat for the torturers. This is insanity. This is the psychology of the serial rapist/murderer.