by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n Whether for partisan advantage or out of delusional utopianism, the jihadists win.<\/em><\/p>\n We can speculate endlessly on why Attorney General Eric Holder appointed a special prosecutor to investigate interrogation techniques and detainee abuse by the CIA, a charge already investigated by the Justice Department several years ago and deemed to be baseless or beyond prosecution. Yet whatever the reason \u2014 whether misplaced idealism or partisan politics \u2014 this decision reveals the delusions and dysfunctions that afflict our culture and leave us more vulnerable to the enemy.<\/p>\n The most important cultural delusion is what one can call juvenile utopianism. This is the creation of unreal expectations and the attempt to realize them in a hard world of evil men and tough choices. Such a mentality measures an imperfect world of imperfect people \u2014 a world of chance, unforeseen change, and unexpected consequences \u2014 by the standards of an abstract perfect justice easy to imagine but impossible to realize given the persistence of an irrational, unpredictable human nature. When these standards aren\u2019t met, when the people charged with taking action, making hard choices, and choosing between the bad and the worse don\u2019t measure up to this imagined perfection, then those who believe in the possibility of achieving their unreal expectations become angry and begin looking for scapegoats to punish \u2014 just like children when their inflated expectations are disappointed by reality.<\/p>\n The fight against jihadist terror has been the occasion for serial demonstrations of this peculiar cultural pathology. Many of us seem to think that a passionately committed enemy, one fired by absolute certainty that his terrorist murders are divinely sanctioned, can be fought according to exquisitely calibrated rules that will ensure no one, not even the enemy, suffers even psychological discomfort. Hence the absurd, unreal standards of treatment the violation of which sparked the outrage over what went on in Abu Ghraib or in Guantanamo. Only by comparison to utopian fantasy, rather than to the more typical practice of human beings in similar situations, could the treatment of those prisoners justify the hysterical adjectives \u2014 \u201chorrific\u201d has been a favorite \u2014 used by the media and critics. In reality, given what goes on every day all over the world (or in many U.S. prisons, for that matter), what happened in Abu Ghraib could be considered s sign of civilization\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n The same inflation of standards has characterized the outrage over interrogation techniques and the treatment of detainees. The smoking-gun report that supposedly is so damning lists, according to\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>, \u201csuggestions about sexually assaulting a detainee\u2019s relatives, mock executions and intimidation with a handgun and power drill.\u201d Ask an Iranian protester detained by the mullahs during the protests against Ahmadinejad\u2019s theft of the election whether he\u2019d prefer being beaten and raped to being intimidated by a power drill. Or poll the millions of political prisoners held all over the world, people daily tortured when they are not summarily executed, whether or not the CIA\u2019s behavior wouldn\u2019t be a vast improvement over what they currently suffer.<\/p>\n But shouldn\u2019t we hold ourselves to a higher standard? Of course, but the standard must be realistic, one that takes into account the tragic limitations of human nature and our actions, and that factors in the need to acquire information in order to protect ourselves against attack by an enemy that scoffs at the careful distinctions we honor. We have to recognize that there is a big moral difference between actions taken to save lives, and actions that reflect sadism or cruelty meant to put an end to dissent or deter political rivals. In short, we have to balance our ideals against the reality of a dangerous world filled with evil men who want to do us harm.<\/p>\n Yet this sort of balance between idealism and realism is rare in our public discourse. Even those one would expect to recognize the tragic complexities that accompany action in a world of evil go astray. Senator John McCain has the right ideas on most issues, but his own experience with being tortured while held captive by the North Vietnamese has muddled his thinking. Thus torture whose aim is sheer sadistic pleasure or vengeance or humiliation is not differentiated from physical and psychological coercion \u2014 carefully monitored to avoid as much as possible permanent damage \u2014 meant to elicit information that could save lives.<\/p>\n Some of McCain\u2019s other assertions are questionable as well. The claim that those being tortured will \u201csay anything\u201d to stop the pain, thus rendering any information useless, forgets that some of the \u201canything\u201d they will say can include the truth. The idea that the revelation of these interrogation techniques damaged relations with our allies or aided Al Qaeda in recruitment is equally suspect. Our allies will formulate their foreign policies based first on their perceptions of their interests, not on their self-righteous discomfort with our behavior. And who of them has hands clean enough to sit in judgment on what we do to protect our citizens? As for al Qaeda, they already have a powerful recruiting tool in Islam\u2019s theology and traditions, in which jihad against the infidel is a spiritual duty. It\u2019s not what we do but what we are \u2014 atheists, polytheists, and infidels \u2014 that justifies pursuing jihad against us. The cataloging of our offenses against Islam is for our benefit, a way to exploit our cultural failure of nerve and weaken our resolve through the acknowledgment of our guilt.<\/p>\n Holder\u2019s investigation promises to be yet another of those public self-flagellations that embolden the enemy and convince him to fight on for another day. Our ability to forestall attacks will be compromised, and the people charged with protecting us will be demoralized. Whether for partisan advantage or out of delusional utopianism, Holder\u2019s investigation will endanger our security.<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Whether for partisan advantage or out of delusional utopianism, the jihadists win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,652],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-B4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5701,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-tin-drum-progressive-boomers\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":0},"title":"The Tin-Drum Progressive Boomers","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Like the hero of Gunter Grass\u2019 novel\u00a0The Tin Drum, America\u2019s progressive Baby Boomers chose not to grow up. Why should they? They decided that their development was complete when they graduated from college. All they needed to do was affirm their magnificent, world-historical identity. No\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4096,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/slouching-toward-geezerhood\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":1},"title":"Slouching Toward Geezerhood","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton RightNetwork.com This year the oldest Baby Boomer cohort turns 65, the first of 79 million people who promise to be the whiniest and most annoying crop of geezers in history. Not all of them, of course. Just as many in the Greatest Generation weren\u2019t so great,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6606,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bruce-thornton-on-secure-freedom-radio-with-frank-gaffney\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":2},"title":"Bruce Thornton on Secure Freedom Radio with Frank Gaffney","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Seth Jones, Bruce Thornton, Peter Pham, Diana West October 9th, 2013\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0Comments SETH JONES, Associate Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation, joins guest host DAN BONGINO, to help explain the terror threat from and historical background of the terrorist organization al-Shabaab. BRUCE THORNTON, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":402,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/one-nation-under-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":3},"title":"One Nation, Under God?","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton Defining Ideas The role of religion in American social and political life is an ever-present element in our civic conversation. The recent controversy over the contraception mandate ignited a smoldering conflict over just this issue. On the one side, people of faith decry the government\u2019s violation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1661,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/blame-our-failing-schools-for-occupy-wall-street\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":4},"title":"Blame Our Failing Schools for Occupy Wall Street","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Having taught in a state university for thirty years, I\u2019m not surprised by the ignorance on display among the Occupy Wall Street protestors. From kindergarten to university, for decades our schools have abandoned the teaching of basic facts and foundational thinking skills, and replaced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4137,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/fantasy-and-worse-from-the-los-angeles-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":2298,"position":5},"title":"Fantasy and Worse from the Los Angeles Times","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton and Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers [Editor\u2019s Note: In the Sunday February 5, 2006 edition of the\u00a0Los Angeles Times Magazine, Fresno-based\u00a0Times\u00a0reporter Mark Arax published an essay purportedly about how acrimony over 9\/11 issues, Iraq, and the war on terror has divided his community\u00a0\"The Valley's Not So\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2299,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2298\/revisions\/2299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}