Originally published on the CGS blog on October 14, 2007.
Fortunately for us, former U.S. Army interrogator, William Quinn, provides us with some anti-torture lessons learned the hard way.
Money quote:
Nearly six years after the 9/11 attacks, we’ve succeeded in killing a lot of people. We’ve invaded two countries, captured thousands of terrorists, and set up new, democratic-style governments in place of the dictatorships we ousted. It has been an incredibly therapeutic six years — at least it felt good at the beginning — but it hasn’t been effective at stopping or even slowing terrorism.
The people who decide our counterterrorism strategy are far better informed than I, but I suspect that, when we are successful, it will be because we recognize our enemies as human and develop plans that recognize their humanity. We need to be tough, and we shouldn’t back down from a fight, but we also need to learn that empathy can be as powerful a weapon as missiles.
For more on U.S. torture and interrogation policy, check out EndTorture.net.
