BUSH TORTURING THE LANGUAGE

25-07-2007

Are the detainees in Guantanamo Bay tortured? Not according to President Bush. But by anyone else's standards, that's exactly what's happening reckons Dr David Nicholl.

What's in a word?

This week, President Bush announced (again) that his forces do not use torture or indeed “cruel or degrading treatment” for good measure.

You would not think that one word could cause such consternation- torture. There shouldn’t be a debate, should there?

One dictionary defines torture as “the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.”

Yet the very same weekend, his chief of intelligence, in supporting his boss, in a very telling interview, pointed out the role of doctors in assisting with the interrogation process.

He stated that “I would not want a U.S. citizen to go through the process” but insisted it wasn’t torture. It is hard to reconcile any of this when ones looks at the treatment of those detainees who are on hunger strike, some for as long as 2 years, in protest at their lack of any proper judicial process, strapped into restraint chairs with the motto “its like a mobile cell on wheels”.

Sadly, the doctors involved have forgotten the first rule of medicine- to respect a patient’s autonomy. Any sane patient, even a prisoner has the right to refuse medical treatment.

The medics have let their judgement become clouded by other considerations, put simply, by “following orders”.

This, of course, has happened before, with the death and interrogation of the anti-apartheid activist, Steve Biko and in the most extreme example, Dr Mengele and the Nazi doctors.

Three weeks ago, there was a change in command at the hospital at Guantanamo, on departing Capt Sollock was awarded a Legion of Merit for his “safe and compassionate care of patients” according to “The Wire” (the Guantanamo base magazine).

In his departure speech, Sollock congratulated everyone for developing “procedures that are not only in use in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but have begun to become the structure by which US government policy is being developed to care for detainees in other parts of the World”.

We should not forget that doctors are not immune from acts of evil (bear in mind Bin-Laden’s number 2 is a paediatrician), just like anyone. However medics are in a unique position of power and responsibility much greater than most.

The point is in Guantanamo, the doctors, just as much as the detainees are beyond the rule of Law. This has been detailed in exhaustive detail by Dr Steven Miles in his book “Oath Betrayed - torture, medical complicity and the War on Terror” which documents the direct complicity of doctors in torture - it’s a harrowing read.

The main point of this is that when we ignore torture, we become complicit in it and Society as a whole becomes poisoned by it and accepting of it.

You may recall one of the reasons we went to war in Iraq was because of the evidence of Saddam having Weapons of Mass Destruction. The source of that evidence was extracted, in part, via torture by the interrogation of Al-Libi, an Al Qaeda operative.

That evidence was, of course, false, but it was part of the reason we invaded Iraq.

Why kick up a fuss, when your boss is out handing medals for doing as he asks and has stated that all the men held in Guantanamo are “Bad Men”.? Why kick up a fuss, when you can get a promotion?

As the saying goes “Sticks and stones can hurt your bones, but words can never harm you”.

Well not quite, not when it comes to torture.