Progressive Politics Examiner

"The Dark Side" POSTED August 6, 10:36 AM

I spent the last couple days reading Jane Mayer’s "The Dark Side" Mayer’s book chronicles the Bush Administrations implementation and advocacy of torture as an interrogation tool in the war on terror.

It’s hard to imagine any American reading the book and not being left with a sense of deep sadness and shame.

Good stories always include a strong protagonist and equally sinister antagonist and "The Dark Side" provides that narrative. On the one hand, the exalted Constitution of the United States, that near perfect and enduring model of government and how it interacts with the citizenry, is the backbone of our nation. Throughout the history of our country, countless brave men and women have fought and died to assure that this Constitution endures. Our elected officials take an sworn oath and ask for help and guidance from the Creator, promising us they have the strength and will to protect and defend the Constitution against all threats external and internal.

Antagonists are plentiful. Mayer tells of one; David Addington ("Cheney’s Cheney) carrying a dog eared copy of the Constitution. Not for reference or a guide on how to navigate the tricky landscape following 9/11, but seemingly as a crib sheet on how best to circumvent the confines of that document so many have died to protect. Cheney, Chertoff, Tenet, Gonzales, Yoo, Haynes, Bybee, Feith, Rice, Bush, Rumsfeld....it’s a long list of scoundrels.

Given the horror of 9/11, perhaps some slack should be given those who had to immediately react, doing anything and everything in their power to prevent another attack. In those intitial horrible days following the attack,an impetuous and emotional reaction to get information at any cost may have been understandable. But as the book reveals, those who authorized torture and abandoned the Constitution were just as much concerned with protecting themselves against furture war crimes charges as they were in protecting the nation against another attack. And when confronted with opposition within their own ranks and advice their policies were unlawful, the scoundrels didn’t amend their policies but, instead, isolated and silenced their critics and wrote more classified documents full of subterfuge and deceit to cover the trail and their asses.

Ultimately, their abandonment of law was an act of cowardice. Not one had the courage to stand up and admit the United States was, in essence, withdrawing from the Geneva Convention and would be engaged in the kind of barbaric interrogations more associated with Germany and Japan in World War II, the Khmer Rouge and Viet Cong, and al Qaeda. Instead, the torture proponents hid under the cloak of "national security" and listened only to sycophants more interested in career development than what they perceived as the triviality and "quaintness" of the Constitution and international law.

There are some heroes in Mayer’s book. Solid Republicans who understood the use of torture was against the law and attempted to undo the terrible damage done. Those individuals paid for their opposition in missed promotions and most, ultimately, left the Administration to work in the private sector. Jim Clemente, David Brant and Alberto Mora are among the true patriots in "The Dark Side".

Alberto Mora, a civilian lawyer in the Pentagon with status equivalent to a four star general was a political appointee in the first and second Bush Administration terms, says it all:

"If cruelty is no longer declared unlawful, but instead is applied as a matter of policy, it alters the fundamental relationship of man to government. It destroys the whole notion of individual rights. The Constitution recognizes that man has an inherent right, not bestowed by the state or laws, to personal dignity, including the right to be free of cruelty. It applies to all human begins, not just in America - even those designated as "unlawful enemy combatants". If you make this exception, the whole Constitution crumbles. It’s a transformative issue"