Mark Danner of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism offers a sobering piece in a recent New York Review of Books on U.S. torture. From his conclusion:
The photographs "do not represent America," or so the President asserts, and we nod our heads and agree. But what exactly does this mean? As so often, it took a comic, Rob Corddry on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, to point out the grim contradiction in this:
There's no question what took place in that prison was horrible. But the Arab world has to realize that the U.S. shouldn't be judged on the actions of a ... well, we shouldn't be judged on actions. It's our principles that matter, our inspiring, abstract notions. Remember: Just because torturing prisoners is something we did, doesn't mean it's something we would do. Over the next weeks and months, Americans will decide how to confront what their fellow citizens did at Abu Ghraib, and what they go on doing at Bagram and Guantanamo and other secret prisons.