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Dr. Herb Ruhs & grandson
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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 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.
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.
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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.
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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.
© by the author.
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