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February 16, 2007

Torture, ticking time bombs, and the American way

I finally broke down and watched Michael Winterbottom's The Road To Guantanamo the other night. As cynical as I am, I still find it astonishing that this place remains open and that there are those who still justify its existence - in fact this past month a justice department official, Charles Stimson, went as far to suggest that the law firms representing the detainees should be branded terrorist as well. That same week, I was given a copy of Fernando Botero's new book depicting Abu Ghraib Abuse. I got to thinking about how one artistically responds to Guantanamo. This is how I came to put together this list of youtube videos that I posted on the WFMU blog last week (link). I realize now that you can't just throw up a list of videos and expect anyone to watch them - the context is very important. Personally, I like to make the connections myself.

When you read the article on 'Counterinsurgency warfare as military malpractice' by Edward N. Luttwak in the current Harper's and the article on 24 and torture by Jane Mayer in the current New Yorker back to back - you can't help but ask yourself if 24 is a strategic response of some crazy secret Government agency to equip American citizens with the ability to sanction and accept torture? The key is this ticking time bomb argument (link). Even though Edward Luttwak makes it clear that all a terrorist has to do is last a few more hours and his 'ticking time bomb' will go off, but the even better argument is that there still has never been a case of a ticking time bomb! But since this idea works so well on 24, obviously the American people are ok with it - well, thats the way some people see it.

Lastly, I updated the archives and uploaded all the old Theory of Everything shows, including a few old 'your radio nightlights' (this is what the radio show was called back in the day) - and I thought I would share "holy war" with you this week as it most clearly spells out where we are going with this whole torture thing. Enjoy.

Posted by bw at February 16, 2007 02:49 PM