As the debate about torture continues and the Obama administration flip-flops on the myriad issues related to it, it’s instructive to have a visual of how torture techniques do and do not work.
Fox’s hit show “24,” which had its season finale May 18, has featured torture in nearly every episode of its seven-season run. In fact, some have argued that the show made torture palatable to America by portraying it as an essential element of counter-terrorism. Star and executive producer Keifer Sutherland denies the show is pro-torture but acknowledges he is glad the show has spurred discourse on the issue.
But the national debate on torture has been relegated to a very narrow sphere with little real discussion of it on TV.
Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann have been valiant in their efforts to maintain focus on the torture issue and on the Obama administration’s efforts to sidestep campaign promises to end it. So has comedian Jon Stewart.
But why shunt the conversation about national security and how it is derived to prime-time dramas and late-night talk shows?
Last week, Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs lost his cool — or at least his facility with English — when he was asked what was happening with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” during a press conference.
One of the many campaign promises Obama made to voters was to overturn the ban on queers in the military. So why did Gibbs have such a problem answering the question? And why does the president now insist he can’t do anything about it without Congress? He can overturn it tomorrow if he wants to by issuing a stop-loss executive order.
Stewart has made similar arguments on “The Daily Show.” Stewart has had a lot to say about national security — like how torture doesn’t ensure it and how dismissing Arabic translators from the military puts the nation in real danger. And it’s hard to argue with his reasoning.
Stewart has taken up the case of Lt. Dan Choi, an Arabic translator who was dismissed from the military because he is gay.
Choi appeared on Maddow’s show in March and said, “I am gay.” As a result of the public declaration, the West Point graduate, Iraq veteran and Arabic linguist received a letter on April 23 telling him he would be dismissed from the military.
Choi has since written to Obama “begging” the president, “Please don’t fire me.”
As Stewart noted with some venom on his May 15 show, the rule of law has been abridged for the war with warrantless wiretapping, rendition and torture. So why not reverse the military ban on gays?
Stewart argued, “So it was OK to water-board a guy 80 times, but God forbid the guy who could understand what that prick was saying has a boyfriend? Water-boarding may make a prisoner talk, but it ain’t gonna make him talk English.”
Stewart was clear: The U.S. government, under both Bush/Cheney and the current administration, has employed many means to maintain national security. But shouldn’t we have all the tools at our disposal — including translators? Isn’t Stewart utterly correct — sarcastic humor aside — when he says if we are torturing suspects and have no one to translate what they say, that’s counterintuitive?
TV shows have prompted debate on torture and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Now it’s up to Washington to fix what’s broken.