Losing the Moral High Ground

by Anonymous G

Posted March 25, 2007

Roddy,

I couldn't agree more with this article (excerpted below).

I watched the Vietnamese waterboard six captured VC on an operation in War Zone D in 1964. I went to my senior advisor, a captain, who told me to go to the regimental advisor, a major, who told me to go to the Vietnamese regimental commander, an ARVN Colonel who had ordered the process – all while this was going on. I talked to the ARVN colonel and told him he couldn't do this that it was against the Geneva Conventions, and he said I was right. He ordered the men released and about 30 seconds later they were machine gunned with their hands still tied behind their backs.

I still think that is why we lost in Vietnam. Either I wasn't strong enough, or we lost the moral high ground in 1964. I would like to think I was on the right side of that incident, but there were others like it that I heard of later – like pushing VC out of helicopters in flight – that I think added to the other side's efforts. No matter their atrocities, we (and the French) acted just like them. And oh by the way, I lost a silver star recommendation by speaking out as well as the contents of my stomach which I promptly emptied into the river that day. My hard boiled sticky rice lunch was by far the more important loss.

So I don't abide by the Administrations' policies with regard to the treatment of prisoners. I think they in fact do more to lose the war than to provide any information of tactical value. We lose our own collective souls.

Regards,
"Anonymous G"

Michael Otterman: Why CIA abuse is medieval madness
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21423633-7583,00.html?from=public_rss

Torture can produce unreliable confessions, while non-coercive methods often reach the truth
The Australian, March 22, 2007

SINCE medieval times, water-boarding, or forcing water into captives' lungs, has been used to compel prisoners to confess. During the Inquisition, water-boarded prisoners admitted to shape-shifting and cavorting with the devil. Today, terrorism suspects subjected to this medieval torture admit the wildest things too. Just ask 9/11 plotter, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM).

…

KSM has also confessed to attempting to bomb the US's Plaza Bank headquarters prior to his arrest in March 2003. "I was responsible for planning, training, surveying, and financing for the new (or second) wave of attacks against ... Plaza Bank, Washington state," he said during his recent Guantanamo tribunal hearing. This claim is also dubious. Plaza Bank was founded in early 2006.

Today, most of KSM's "facts" are inseparable from fiction

…

Over time, the FBI has developed an array of non-violent interrogation techniques. FBI investigators methodically engage their suspects in conversation, supply incentives, then slowly vet and cross-check the information their suspects reveal.

…

Given KSM's boastful personality, officials should have known that torture – and its say-anything-to-stop-the-pain qualities – would be the worst way to get accurate intelligence.

By torturing him, the Bush administration slammed shut what could have been a window into the al-Qa'ida terror network. Now, the truth will remain hidden from both the US Government and from KSM's victims.

Michael Otterman is a visiting scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at University of Sydney and author of American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib (Melbourne University Press). 

 

"Anonymous G" is a retired O-5 self-described grunt with several tours in Vietnam.   He has chosen to remain anonymous, despite my entreaties, because he doesn't want to come across as plaster saint.  Personally, I feel that if we had more commanders like Anon G, Ho Chi Minh City would still be Saigon today. – Chet Richards, Editor.

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