Torture

The British media hasn't made much of the ugly 'deal' between George Bush and the US Congress, which legitimises torture in all but name, and defines 'Enemy Combatant' so dangerously broadly that it could include just about anyone that George Bush doesn't like.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden has collected a lot of blogosphere responses, culminating with this quote from Jim Henley

It is now official United States policy that our security depends on hiding people away and torturing them, said decision to be made in secret without review. This is what the United States says about who we are.

Dave Neiwert, who the usual suspects amongst the Freepi dismiss as a tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist, is not the only person to use the F-word.

Fascists are particularly fond of torture because it represents such a complete expression of the fascist will to power. So when a nation adopts torture as an officially condoned policy -- as the United States has just done -- it immediately raises the specter that, indeed, it may be descending into the fascist abyss.

Neiwert goes on to look at Robert O. Paxton's nine "mobilizing passions" of fascism, and compare them with what's happening with the American right. The conclusions he comes to are disturbing.

The appearance of legal torture as part of the American landscape is a profound change, and certainly signals the approach of the totalitarian state, though it may not herald its actual arrival. And considering that a right-wing regime is involved, discussing the specter of fascism is not only appropriate but necessary.

Even if it does not signal the actual arrival of fascism, it's the clearest warning sign of its approach yet. Torture is a quintessentially fascist act; codifying it means that the massive brick in the wall that it represents has been plunked into place. And it's the kind of brick that can be the cornerstone of a massive national pathology of apocalyptic proportions.

The terrible truth is that those of us who consider outselves 'liberal' are fighting a war on two fronts. The Jihadi are a genuine threat; there really are nihilist fanatics out there trying to kill us. Anyone who thinks that the July 7 London bombings were some kind of false flag operation is off in tinfoil hat land. But the authoritatian elements within our own ruling elites represent just as big a threat to freedom and democracy. They're using the fear of Islamist terror as a pretext for a power grab of their own.

And don't think it just applies to America. Some of the recent utterances by John Reid are little different from the words use by Republican senators supporting the torture bill.

As commenter "Midwesterner" said on Samizdata.net

If a 21st century superpower can't defend itself from 7th century jihadists without sinking to their level, (or even sinking appreciably) we are doomed and might as well fold our hand now.

The conduct of terrorists and torturers does not make it acceptable conduct for us.