Torture, Tongues, and Treason

"Torture, Tongues, and Treason": It is difficult to write freely as an American about torture today. This difficulty arises from the fact that we Americans use two contradictory languages to speak about torture: the international language of human rights (by means of which we condemn torture), and the new Bush-speak on torture, (by means of which we sanction torture). This contradiction undermines the consistency of American political discourse; it permits systematic acts of cruelty to be confused with patriotic expressions of loyalty to the homeland; and it justifies abuse as an exceptional but necessary means to securing America's enduring freedom. At what point does inconsistency of this sort cease to be merely contradictory and become treasonous?

Torturers, like censors, aim to control how their victims use language. Whereas torturers command their victims to speak in response to abuse; censors command their victims to keep silent about the abuse. By working in tandem, torturers and censors assure that their victims emit only the sounds and silences of the language of betrayal. As such, they effectively strip their victims of freedom of speech, transforming them into involuntary servants who must contradict and literally speak against themselves. But such forced betrayal is not a reflection of the victims' loss of freedom only; it also highlights the radical freedom enjoyed by torturers and censors. Insofar as this abusive freedom is a total freedom, it is consistent with the ambitions of a totalitarian regime. But when freedom is abused by agents of a republican regime in order precisely to defend the democratic freedoms of its citizens, the resulting contradictions constitute an act of betrayal. Indeed, the traitors that American torture in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Cuba has helped to create are not among the victims only. There are traitors among the perpetrators too. To write on torture in America with these treasonous patriots in mind requires that one speak the language of betrayal with a split tongue, and betray the betrayal.