Matthew Alexander served 14 years in the U.S. Air Force, saw combat in Bosnia and Kosovo, became an Air Force counterintelligence agent, and then volunteered to go to Iraq to work as a senior interrogator.
He writes about his experience and his reaction to sanctioned interrogation practices in a Washington Post opinion piece today.
Torture
and abuse are against my moral fabric. The cliche still bears
repeating: Such outrages are inconsistent with American principles. And
then there's the pragmatic side: Torture and abuse cost American lives.
I
learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to
fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our
policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for
al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are
still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most
of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no
exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in
that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray
because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers
who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively
known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives
lost on Sept. 11, 2001.
My
experiences have landed me in the middle of another war -- one even
more important than the Iraq conflict. The war after the war is a fight
about who we are as Americans. Murderers like (Iraq al Qaeda leader,
Abu Musab al) Zarqawi can kill us, but they can't force us to change
who we are. We can only do that to ourselves. One day, when my
grandkids sit on my knee and ask me about the war, I'll say to them,
"Which one?"
Americans, including officers like myself, must fight to protect our
values not only from al-Qaeda but also from those within our own
country who would erode them.
This war Mr. Alexander refers to - an acquiescence by some to accept torture as an acceptable compromise in a war on radical Islamic jihadism - has created a deep schism. After reading much on the topic, it seems that the great majority of career military - those who have seen war and understand its implications - steadfastly oppose torture and abuse. The very vocal supporters of torture seem to be comprised of an awful lot of folks who have no military experience whatsoever.
I've learned to rely on experts to help me understand difficult matters. I wouldn't want my mailman doing brain surgery, and I don't trustthose who have no experience at all arguing they know best when it comes to effective interrogation techniques.
I'll place my bet with those who know what they're actually talking about.
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